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RATIONAL  SEX  SERIES 


Rational  Sex  Ethics,  Books  I  and  II, 
hy  W.  F.  Rohie,  M.D. 

Sex  and  Life,  hy  W.  F.  Robie,  M.D. 

Sane  Sex  Life  and  Sane  Sex  Living,  hy 
H.  W.  Long,  M.D. 

Temperament  and  Sex,  by  Walter  Heaton 

Sex  and  Society,  by  W.  I.  Thomas 

Children  by  Chance  or  by  Choice,  by 
William  Hawley  Smith 


RICHARD    G.     badger,     PUBLISHER,     BOSTON 


RATI  ON AL 
SEX     ETHICS 


A  MORE  INTENSIVE  STUDY  OF  SEX  HIS- 
TORIES, CASE  HISTORIES,  AND  DREAMS. 
WITH  THERAPEUTIC  SUGGESTIONS, 
AND   PHILOSOPHICAL    DEDUCTIONS 


BOOKU 


W.  F.  ROBIE,  M.D.,  M.R.C. 

Superintendent  Pine  Terrace,  Baldvnnville,  Mass. 
Author  of  "Sex  and  Life" 


Sold  only  to  members  of  the  recognized  professions 


BOSTON 
RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE    GORHAM    PRESS 


COPYBIGHT,  1919,  BY  RiCHABD  G.  BADGEE 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Made  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.S.A. 


<  HQ 

RS5r 


PREFACE 

One  year  ago,  ten  years  after  most  of  Rational  Sex 
Ethics  was  written,  the  book  was  placed  in  the  hands 
of  the  professions.  This  was  done  with  mingled  feel- 
ings on  the  part  of  the  author.  His  facts  were  beyond 
cavil  and,  if  his  reasoning  was  as  logical  as  he  had  tried 
to  make  it,  his  conclusions  were  inevitable.  Yet  these 
conclusions  were  in  some  respects  so  much  at  variance 
with  ideas  long  accepted  both  by  the  medical  profes- 
sion and  by  the  laity  that  their  brusque  dismissal  was 
possible,  without  due  consideration  of  the  facts  pre- 
sented and  without  weighing  the  accumulation  of  evi- 
dence recently  brought  forward,  which  corroborated  or 
possibly  antedated  the  author's  conclusions.  It  is 
with  surprise  and  with  feelings  akin  to  chagrin  rather 
than  with  those  of  self-felicitation  that  he  now  states 
that,  save  one,  he  neither  has  seen  nor  heard  of  a  sin- 
gle unkind  or  severe  criticism.  He  was  told  that  a 
sharp  and  rather  derogatory  review  appeared  in  a  not 
over  prominent  medical  journal,  but  the  reader  had 
forgotten  the  name  of  the  journal,  and  the  author  has 
sought  for  it  in  vain.  This  lack  of  criticism  has  not 
been  from  neglect,  for  there  has  been  a  steady  and  in- 
creasing demand  for  the  book.  Scores  of  physicians, 
whose  attainments  and  judgment  have  been  most  highly 
respected,  but  whom  the  writer  formerly  would  have 
classed  as  ultra-conservative,  have  personally  com- 
mended his  work  in  no  uncertain  terms.  An  increas- 
ing number  of  correspondents   among  college,  univer- 

3 


4  PREFACE 

sity,  legal,  and  medical  men  have  shown  approval  far 
beyond  what  he  considers  his  due  for  this  little  piece 
of  work. 

Perhaps  he  may  be  pardoned  for  misjudging  the  pro- 
fession and  the  public.  Possibly  it  should  minimize  his 
chagrin  at  so  doing,  and  render  his  apology  less  abject 
when  it  is  considered  how  hide-bound  and  conservative 
society  was  twenty  years  ago,  when  he  was  making  his 
first  investigations  in  these  subjects;  and  that  com- 
paratively recently  a  scientific  authority  of  interna- 
tional repute,  though  agreeing  largely  with  the  author's 
views,  advised  against  publication  on  these  very 
grounds.  Again,  a  publishing  house  of  wide  experience 
along  these  lines  declined  publication  for  the  present, 
though  approving  the  work.  They  stated  that  the 
work  was  in  advance  of  public  sentiment  and  named  a 
date  several  years  ahead  when  they  would  gladly  un- 
dertake its  publication.  So  the  author  had  good  com- 
pany in  thinking  that  the  profession  and  the  public 
had  not  thought  in  a  modern,  biologic,  sociologic,  com- 
monsense  way  about  this  subject.  Nevertheless,  his 
apology  is  no  less  sincere  for  his  mis  judgment.  Many 
have  urged  him  to  continue  the  observations  which  long 
have  been  in  progress,  and  to  contribute  something 
further  on  the  subject.  Continued  observations  are,  it 
seems,  inevitable;  for,  aside  from  facts  constantly  ac- 
cumulating in  the  course  of  professional  work,  some 
who  have  written  their  impressions  of  the  book  have 
contributed  histories  based  on  the  questionnaire  therein 
incorporated,  and  have  expressed  the  hope  that  they 
might  be  of  use  in  future  studies  of  this  kind.  Many 
histories  of  neurotics  and  normals,  studied  by  the  au- 
thor later  than  those  incorporated  in  Rational  Sex 
Ethics,  have  been  so  illuminating  and  so  corroborative 


PREFACE  5 

in  their  evidence  that,  had  there  been  the  slightest 
scruple  or  uncertainty,  it  would  have  been  entirely 
overcome ;  or  had  the  author  faced  a  storm  of  criticism 
he  could  now  but  take  issue  with  it.  The  evidence, 
though  so  far  one-sided,  and  rapidly  accumulating  ap- 
parentl}'  beyond  any  contradiction,  may  not  be  definite, 
so,  should  anything  opposed  to  these  conclusions  be 
discovered,  it  will  be  entered  faithfully  and  given  due 
consideration. 

As  there  were  originally  no  preconceived  opinions  on 
the  part  of  the  writer,  he  hopes  that  no  state  of  mind 
may  ever  be  produced  which  is  not  open  to  conviction 
when  circumstances  warrant.  That  old  ideas  are  be- 
ing slowly  dislodged  is  evident  from  the  character  of 
several  recent  books  on  sex.  Where  formerly  the  posi- 
tion against  auto-erotism  at  any  time  and  of  any  fre- 
quency was  unequivocal,  there  are  now  many  writers, 
who,  while  clinging  to  ancient  dogma  in  a  measure 
(throwing  a  sop  to  it,  as  it  were),  also  state  on  the 
other  side  of  the  account,  recent  findings  which  go  to 
show  that  they  believe  and  would  have  their  readers 
think  that  the  tales  of  death  and  destruction  from  this 
practice  have  been  tremendously  exaggerated.  While 
this  shows  a  healthy  change  in  educated  opinion,  some- 
thing more  than  a  balancing  of  accounts  is  necessary 
for  the  relief  of  those  who  are  suffering  from  an  ab- 
sorption of  the  old  pre-scientific  ideas.  Flat  contra- 
dictions of  old-fogy  notions  must  be  made  over  and 
over  again  before  they  can  be  eradicated.  Robinson 
says,  and  truly,  "  The  evil  results  of  exaggerating  the 
influence  of  masturbation  have  been  so  great  in  the 
past  that,  if  now  the  pendulum  were  to  swing  to  the 
other  extreme,  I  am  sure  it  would  not  be  a  bad  thing 
at  all." 


6  PREFACE 

The  intention  is  to  continue  with  the  physiology  and 
psychology  of  sex  in  this  volume  somewhat  as  was 
done  in  Rational  Sex  Ethics,  but  also  to  go  far  more 
deeply  into  the  matter;  and  to  that  end  a  long  and 
intensive  study  of  some  of  the  cases  here  presented 
has  been  made.  My  endeavor  first  in  these  further 
studies  is  to  bring  the  study  of  sex  nearer  to  that  of  the 
exact  sciences,  without  minimizing  in  the  least  the 
often  emphasized  importance  of  romance  and  idealism. 
To  do  this  it  is  necessary  to  popularize  the  subject 
somewhat,  or  at  least  to  lift  the  veil  which  has  so  long 
shrouded  everything  pertaining  to  sex.  My  critics  may 
say  that  a  good  deal  of  this  matter  is  not  science  at  all. 
To  them  I  would  answer  that  I  belong  to  a  class,  rap- 
idly increasing,  who  believe  in  science  and  are  devoted 
to  it  but  have  not  always  the  patience,  perhaps  not  the 
opportunity  nor  ability,  to  pursue  abstract  studies  in- 
definitely when  the  human  value  is  remote  or  not  at  all 
evident,  studies,  for  instance,  like  those  now  being  pur- 
sued on  the  obliteration  of  the  epidermic  ridges  of  the 
soles  and  palms.  No  doubt  everyone  knows  that  the 
pads  on  the  feet  of  primitive  mammals  are  the  ante- 
cedents of  the  whorl-like  patterns  on  the  hands  and 
feet  of  the  monkey,  which  in  turn  are  antecedents  of 
the  pictures  or  patterns  on  our  hands  and  feet,  known 
specifically  as  apical,  interdigital,  thenar,  hypothenar 
and  calcanar.  Studies  like  the  above,  tracing  such 
characters  back  through  the  intermediate  stages  to  their 
sources  require  a  long  time,  peculiar  adaptability  and 
an  accuracy  impossible  to  any  but  the  laboratory 
worker.  Still  they  give  hope  of  further  light  as  to  the 
heredity  of  acquired  characters,  which  knowledge  may 
not  only  settle  some  disputes  between  the  followers  of 
Lamark  and  Weissman,  but  may  be,  like  any  studies 


PREFACE  7 

in  heredity,  of  value  to  us  and  future  generations.  The 
recent  discovery  of  the  sex  link  characters  is  undoubt- 
edly valuable,  but  some  of  us,  who  deal  extensively  with 
human  life  as  it  is  ever  before  us,  see  so  many  injurious 
effects  of  ignorance  that,  however  much  we  may  desire 
the  pursuit  of  pure  science,  which  may  be  remotely  or 
never  utilitarian,  we  can  but  give  our  allegiance  to  a 
science  which  is  immediately  useful.  It  is  no  less  sci- 
ence to  explore  the  inner  lives  of  people,  to  tabulate 
the  results  and  pass  on  immediately  any  useful  dis- 
coveries for  humanity's  betterment  than  to  follow  out 
some  phase  of  science  for  the  sake  of  knowledge  itself, 
with  only  a  possibility  of  future  usefulness.  In  order 
that  people  may  take  kindly  to  a  subject  long  tabu,  it 
is  necessary  for  them  to  see  results  of  knowledge  soon 
after  the  knowledge  is  acquired.  Therefore,  I  weave 
in  much  of  the  practical,  which  may  by  some  scientists 
be  considered  popular,  common,  or  irrelevant.  With 
this  explanation,  I  hope  some  of  my  super-scientific 
readers,  if  I  have  any  such,  may  bear  more  patiently 
with  my  apparent  digressions. 

There  is  also  the  timid  ambition  to  go  a  step  farther 
and  to  take  a  comprehensive  view  of  sex  be^^ond  the 
domain  of  the  individual  sciences.  In  short,  philosophy 
has  been  not  onlv  a  diversion  and  comfort,  but  of 
vast  service  to  us.  Unification  helps  us  to  see  clearly 
what  we  may  have  but  glimpsed  before. 

While  a  philosophy  of  sex  is  in  its  incipiency,  not 
too  mucli  must  be  expected  of  such  a  crude  philosopher 
as  the  present  one,  who  is  ready  to  admit  a  not  too  great 
familiarity  with  the  philosophies  of  life  in  its  totality 
which  the  ancients  and  moderns  have  given  us. 

From  the  Alpha  of  Anaximines  to  the  Omega  of  Ber- 
nard Shaw  and  other  moderns  (this  may  be  perceived 


8  PREFACE 

as  an  anti-climax)  is  a  long  way.  Short  stretches  only 
of  this  road  may  be  traveled  by  us  in  common,  but  let 
us  hope  that  such  journeys  may  be  of  mutual  interest 
and  profit. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  I  stated  in  the  earlier 
studies  that  my  wife  was  my  amanuensis,  though  her 
Puritanical  inheritance  influenced  her  more  largely  than 
did  mine  toward  hesitancy,  conservatism  and  silence  in 
these  matters.  My  courage  and  enthusiasm  for  fur- 
ther work  is  not  a  little  enhanced  by  the  admitted  fact 
that,  though  her  early  ideas  and  beliefs  still  hold  all 
legitimate  dominion,  the  inexorable  logic  of  results 
which  she  has  inevitably  observed  has  converted  her 
from  a  hesitating  accomplice  to  a  willing,  possibly 
ardent,  co-worker. 

The  author  of  Rational  Sex  Ethics  desires  to  express 
his  personal  gratitude  that  so  just  an  interpretation 
of  his  motives  should  have  been  given  by  a  public  whom 
he  himself  seriously  misjudged.  He  is  also  greatly 
heartened  in  his  hopes  for  social  betterment  by  the  evi- 
dent desire  of  all  educated  people  to  free  sex  from 
prudery  and  to  find  for  it  its  legitimate  place  in  all  our 
lives. 

W.  F.  R. 

June  18,  1918. 


CONTENTS 

chapter  page 

Introduction 11 

I    Psycho-analysis  and  Society 27 

Part  I.    An  Appreciation  and  a  Criticism,  with  Report  of  Cases 

II     Psycho-analysis  and  Society 46 

III  The    Case    of   N 57 

Part  I.    History  and  Therapy 

IV  The  Case  of  N 82 

Part  II.    Interpretation  of  Dreams,  by  Prof.  L.  C.  Day,  A.M. 

V     A  Case  of  Hysteria     .      .      ..     o 98 

VI  Introduction  to  Sex  and  Case  Histories      .     .     .     .   139 

VII     Case  Histories   . 144 

VIII     Sex    Histories 162 

IX     Birth  Control .   187 

X    Mistakes  of  a  Physiclan 198 

XI     Incidental   Observations 203 

XII  An  Incipient  Philosophy    .........  228 

APPENDIX 

1.  Criticisms   and    Answers      .      o 265 

n.  Rational  Sex  Ethics  for  Men  in  the  Army  and 

Navy 279 

ni.  Advice  for  the  Newly  Married 292 

rv.  Questions  and  Answers 309 

V.  Is  Continence  Necessary  to  the  Highest  Achieve- 
ment?        "^15 

Vi.  Regeneration 319 

vn.  The  Old  Idealism  in  Sex  Teaching 322 

9 


INTRODUCTION 

Certain  parts  of  this  book,  while  yet  in  manuscript 
form,  were  read  by  a  man  who  is  a  scientific  authority 
and  for  whose  opinion  I  have  the  highest  regard.  From 
him  I  received  the  following  letter  of  frank  and  friendly 
criticism,  criticism  which  I  consider  perfectly  just  when 
the  manuscripts  which  he  had,  and  which  dealt  entirely 
with  neurotics  were  isolated  from  the  other  parts  of  my 
work.     The  letter  follows : 

My  Dear  Dr.  Robie: 

I  am  returning  herewith  your  papers,  all  of  which  I 
have  read  with  great  interest.  I  like  your  abbreviated  and 
common-sense  way  of  getting  psychoanalytic  results.  Very 
likely  the  current  psychoanalysis  has  magnified  both  the 
power  and  dimensions  of  the  unconscious  and  also  has  a  too 
elaborate  technique.  I  have  always  been  much  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Burrows  point  of  view,  although  I  think  per- 
haps he  is  regarded  as  very  theoretical. 

As  to  your  main  point  of  permitting  or  encouraging  auto- 
erotism in  certain  conditions,  I  am  of  course  not  compe- 
tent to  give  any  medical  opinion,  but  there  is  one  fact  that 
has  great  weight  with  me  and  that  is  that  for  many  years 
students,  with  whom  I  often  get  in  very  confidential  rela- 
tions, have  assured  me  with  an  emphasis  I  cannot  doubt  that 
they  get  on  normally  and  witli  no  discomfort  with  spon- 
taneous experiences  in  their  sleep.  My  personal  experience 
and  knowledge  as  a  boy  and  young  man  j^oints  in  the  same 
direction.  Animals  of  course  get  on  thus  with  no  abnor- 
malities. Therefore,  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  you  make 
a  great  concession  to  tlie  abnormals,  who  of  course  are  the 
ones  that  come  under  a  physician's  care,  and  that  you  judge 


12  INTRODUCTION 

the  normals  who  do  not  by  them.  I  think  the  Freudians 
may  be  right  even  in  their  wildest  symbolism  because  ab- 
normals  may  associate  anything  and  everything  with  sex, 
but  their  great  mistake  is  that  they  assume  tliat  normal 
people  do  this,  and  so  with  your  view  I  believe  that  one 
reading  your  work  would  say  that  you  judged  the  great 
body  of  normal  people  too  much  by  the  abnormal  that  come 
to  you  for  treatment. 

My  chief  fear,  however,  is  that  in  all  this  discussion  there 
is  too  much  of  a  tendency  to  fatalism.  If  one  magnifieai  the 
strength  of  this  instinct  as  something  so  imperious  and  domi- 
nant that  it  must  be  yielded  to,  I  fear  that  would  tend  to 
moral  degeneration.  Even  if  a  neurotic  cannot  practice 
self-control,  that  is  nevertheless  one  of  the  noblest  of  human 
virtues,  one  of  the  best  tests  of  the  strength  of  character, 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  a  normal  young  man  reading  your 
work  might  receive  very  great  injury. 

You  wanted  me  to  write  you  frankly  my  ovra  impressions. 
They  are  of  course  not  professional  like  yours,  and  they 
are  not  based  upon  such  detailed  personal  study,  but  they 
represent  a  different  and  I  would  believe  more  representa- 
tive class  of  young  men.  Thanking  you  for  allowing  me  to 
see  your  papers,  I  am 

Very  sincerely  yours. 

The  above  letter  is  the  most  critical  opinion  that 
I  have  seen  concerning  my  work.  This  critic  read  and 
commended  Rational  Sex  Ethics,  and  the  above  criti- 
cism applies  to  certain  portions  of  the  present  work, 
which  he  saw  in  manuscript  form.  Nevertheless,  this 
criticism  might  apply  to  the  former  book,  since  the 
position  there  taken,  while  perhaps  not  so  strong,  is 
similar  to  that  taken  in  the  present  study.  This  is  a 
natural  criticism,  one  to  be  expected,  and  a  most  just 
one,  provided  the  premises  of  the  critic  are  correct. 
I  propose  to  answer  the  main  points  of  this  criticism 
in  the  spirit  in  which  they  were  given.  First  let  me 
quote  from  page  29  of  Rational  Sex  Ethics: 


INTRODUCTION  13 

This  material  then  has  been  all  obtained  from  what  is 
considered  the  better  part  of  the  middle  class.  Clergy- 
men, physicians,  educators,  philanthropists,  a  few  business 
men  and  superior  artisans,  with  the  wives,  sisters,  and 
daughters  of  many  of  these  have  been  the  people  princi- 
pally consulted.  A  few  histories  of  people  otherwise  nor- 
mal, who  have  suffered  and  recovered  from  attacks  of 
functional  nervous  diseases,  are  included.  All  are  people 
generally  accredited  as  of  the  very  best  social  value  from 
educational,  religious,  moral,  and  business  standpoints. 

While  the  assumption  of  the  critic  that  a  physician 
would  naturally  give  great  weight  to  his  medical  cases 
and  extend  his  arguments  and  conclusions  from  them 
to  normal  people  in  general  is  perfectly  natural  and 
legitimate,  I  think  that  consideration  of  the  above  quo- 
tation, but  if  this  is  not  enough,  a  careful  reading  of  the 
volume  it  was  taken  from,  and  the  present  one,  will 
show  that  in  the  present  instance,  at  least,  the  work 
of  the  author  as  an  investigator  of  normal  lives,  rather 
than  his  medical  experience  with  neurotics,  was  the 
chief  basis  of  his  conclusions.  While  experience  with 
neurotics  first  called  attention  to  the  great  divergence 
between  the  public  conscience  and  the  universal  practice 
in  sex  matters,  it  was  at  once  perceived  that  it  would 
not  do  to  apply  to  normal  people  any  conclusions  de- 
rived from  such  then  thought-to-be  abnormal  cases.  It 
will  be  seen  that  the  author  repeatedly  has  stated  that 
it  was  his  purpose  from  the  outset  to  make  an  exhaustive 
study  of  people  conforaiing  to  all  standards  of  normal- 
ity for  the  purpose  of  discovering  what  was  proper  sex 
hygiene  for  normals.  It  was  also  stated  that  now  and 
then  a  neurotic  was  included  when,  after  years,  it  was 
fully  determined  that  such  an  one  had  been  only  tem- 
porarily absent  from  the  ranks  of  the  normal.  Nat- 
urally, some  long  and  detailed  cases  were  taken  from 


14  INTRODUCTION 

the  so-called  neurotic  class,  first  because  they  were  more 
accessible  for  detailed  study,  and  second  because  it 
seemed  important  to  show  why  they  had  left  the  nor- 
mal and  by  what  means  they  got  back  again. 

As  nearly  as  I  can  remember  without  going  over 
every  case  in  detail,  each  and  every  one  of  them  left 
the  normal  as  a  result  of  disturbance  or  worry  arising 
from  some  of  the  dogma  which  had  become  a  part  of 
our  sexual  code,  or  from  misinterpretation  of  it.  In 
each  and  every  case,  likewise,  the  return  to  the  normal 
was  rapid,  complete,  and  permanent  after  contradic- 
tion of  predicted  calamities,  the  clothing  of  sex  with 
its  true  dignity  by  dispelling  shame  and  self-conscious 
prudery,  and  by  pronouncing  ethically  correct  and 
physically  safe  as  much  auto-erotic  relief  as  seemed 
unavoidable  after  all  current  methods  of  self-control, 
sublimation,  and  sex  regimen  had  been  exhausted.  I 
have  advocated  and  always  shall  advocate  self-control 
in  sex  as  in  all  things ;  but  it  is  true  that  I  have  made 
some  slight  concessions  to  sex  necessity,  imperious 
obsessing  desire,  universal  custom,  biologic  law,  or  to 
the  phenomena  arising  out  of  the  libido,  elan  vital,  sex 
instinct  or  impulse,  under  whatever  terms  they  may  be 
subsumed.  This  concession,  or  removal  of  the  stigma, 
stain,  and  fear  of  moral  and  physical  evils  from  such 
auto-erotism  as  was  apparently  a  physiologic  and 
psychic  necessity  in  given  cases  might  be  construed  as 
a  letting  down  the  bars  or  an  admission  of  fatalism 
or  a  disposition  to  ignore  the  rightfulness  and  necessity 
of  self-control. 

If  my  points  have  in  any  way  been  proved,  it  is  no 
derogation  of  the  virtue  of  self-control  to  establish 
its  limits.  It  is  no  fatalism  to  discover  the  laws  under 
which  human  beings  operate  and  to  live  and  advocate 


.H». 


INTRODUCTION  15 

living  by  them.  The  question  then  comes  as  to  whether 
I  have  demonstrated  my  main  proposition.  This  may 
be  or  may  not  be ;  I  am,  as  ever,  open  to  conviction ; 
but  if  it  has  been  demonstrated  it  has  been  done  legiti- 
mately from  studies  in  normal  people,  not  by  applying 
to  them  findings  made  among  nerotics.  To  be  sure, 
I  have  helped,  by  the  latter  studies,  to  corroborate  what 
many  physicians  and  psychologists  are  now  beginning 
to  believe,  viz.,  that  neurotic  and  normal  belong  to 
the  same  great  class.  The  neurotic  is  a  little  more 
neurotic  than  the  normal,  and  the  normal  is  a  little  less 
neurotic  than  the  neurotic.  The  determination  of  what 
part  of  the  class  one  shall  be  in  is  generally'  due  to 
one's  early  sex  experiences  and  the  psychic  states  re- 
sulting from  these.  When  trying,  humiliating,  or  dis- 
gusting experiences,  or  when  normal  manifestations  of 
instinct  are  looked  upon  as  crippling,  debasing,  and 
altogether  vicious,  and  the  sufferer  tries  to  escape  his 
thoughts  and  cannot ;  we  have  the  neuroses.  When  the 
individual  himself  sees,  in  early  life,  or  in  later  life 
is  brought  by  the  physician  or  psychologist  to  see 
these  things  in  their  true  perspective,  and  to  allow 
of  their  presence  as  some  small  factor  in  his  unified 
personality,  then  we  have  the  normal.  The  above  is 
what  I  have  chiefly  tried  to  show  by  the  introduction 
of  neurotic  cases,  and  from  this  point  of  view  I  think 
such  cases  well  worth  considering. 

Their  observation  started  these  investigations,  they 
go  in  some  measure  to  strengthen  the  evidence  derived 
from  normal  people ;  but  any  radical  sentiments  which 
I  have  uttered  or  may  advance  are  based,  not  on  these, 
but  on  the  universality  of  certain  sex  phenomena  in 
people  who  were  normal,  as  far  as  I  and  ordinary  opin- 
ion could  determine.     I  need  not  enter  here  fully  into 


16  INTRODUCTION 

all  phases  of  the  criticism.  I  have  discussed  elsewhere 
emissions  or  spontaneous  sleep  manifestations  and  the 
fact  that  they  are  unquestionably  in  some  cases  ade- 
quate outlets  for  the  necessarily  continent;  while,  in 
others,  whether  as  the  result  of  a  congenital  tempera- 
ment or  of  a  psychological  state  rising  out  of  false 
reasoning  and  fear,  they  occur  seldom  if  at  all,  even 
in  extremely  virile  individuals. 

If  a  personal  allusion  may  be  pardoned,  I  may  state 
that,  so  far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  I  have  had  but 
three  emissions  during  my  life  up  to  the  present,  though 
I  have  suffered  much  during  periods  of  abstinence  both 
before  and  since  marriage.  My  age  is  fifty-one,  I  am 
the  father  of  seven  children,  and  am  apparently  as 
virile  as  at  twenty,  thirty,  or  forty.  Were  this  an  iso- 
lated case  it  might  be  looked  on  as  an  anomaly,  but 
since  many  men  and  women  have  assured  me  that  theirs 
is  a  similar  make-up,  there  is  no  doubt  that  thousands, 
perhaps  hundreds  of  thousands,  may  be  placed  in  the 
same  category.  This  practical  absence  of  the  phe- 
nomena of  emissions  or  other  sleep  manifestations  in 
some  normal  people  and  its  healthful  frequency  in 
others  renders  at  once  entirely  valueless  any  assump- 
tion that  emissions  or  sleep  manifestations  are  a  uni- 
versal panacea  for  those  of  either  sex  necessarily  con- 
tinent. We  must  either  see  to  it  that  all  normal  peo- 
ple have  sex  manifestations  in  sleep,  varying  in  fre- 
quency, perhaps  as  a  rule  from  once  a  month  to  three 
times  a  week,  or  we  must  provide  some  other  remedy 
for  those  who  have  none,  or  practically  none,  of  these 
manifestations.  I  have  no  hesitancy  whatever  in  nam- 
ing auto-erotism  as  the  only  possible  remedy  consistent 
with  morals,  health,  self-respect,  and  social  betterment, 
for  this  latter  class. 


INTRODUCTION  IT 

One  more  reference  to  the  letter  of  criticism.  I  did 
not  publish  my  views  on  these  matters  until  many  years 
after  I  had  entertained  them,  and  not  until  others 
as  well  as  myself  had  had  opportunity  to  observe  the 
results  upon  those  who  had  believed  and  followed  them. 
If  there  had  been  a  single  exception  to  the  apparent 
salutary  effects  of  these  views,  if  all  indications  did  not 
point  to  this  solution  of  the  sex  problem  as  safe,  sane, 
constructive,  and  better  than  anything  thus  far  ad- 
vanced, neither  Rational  Sex  Ethics  nor  this  work,  nor 
the  lesser  books  now  being  brought  out,  would  ever  have 
been  published. 

"  Facts  are  stranger  than  fiction,"  and  some  such 
facts  have  come  to  my  attention  while  I  have  been 
writing  these  things.  I  recently  met,  in  an  accidental 
way,  a  professional  man  who  incidentally  discovered 
that  I  had  made  some  investigations  in  sex  matters, 
and  that  I  was  writing  along  these  lines.  Perhaps  giv- 
ing the  results  of  this  meeting  and  acquaintance  may 
help  to  dispel  the  doubts  of  some  who  disapprove  of 
sex  enlightenment  and  of  definite  rules  for  sex  conduct. 
This  liberally  educated  man,  who  had  been  married 
ten  years  and  who  had  several  children,  had  read  all 
the  sex  books  he  could  get  hold  of  and  had  consulted 
several  doctors  in  a  vain  search  for  knowledge  to  en- 
able him  to  live  a  normal  married  life,  such  a  life  as 
two  apparently  normal  people  like  himself  and  his  wife 
should  live.  He  had  no  intention  of  consulting  me  as 
a  physician  In  regard  to  their  marriage  relations.  (He 
had  long  since  given  up  hope  of  solving  their  prob- 
lems.) Our  talks  were  friendly,  rambling  ones,  inter- 
spersed with  a  little  advice  here  and  there,  and  my 
account,  I  fear,  must  be  rambling  also ;  but  I  think  it 
worth  while  as   showing  what  dense  ignorance  exists 


18  INTRODUCTION 

even  among  us  medical  men,  and  what  simple  remedies 
often  immediately  rectify  mistakes  of  many  years'  stand- 
ing. 

We  were  talking  about  the  current  sex  books,  and 
he  said  there  was  almost  no  definite  information  in  them, 
and  I  said,  "  Especially  in  those  for  girls,  and  that  is 
why  I  am  writing  a  book  for  girls  just  now."  Then  I 
said,  thinking  to  show  how  ignorant  our  profession  is 
of  sex,  that  a  scientist  investigating  these  problems  had 
told  me  that  Adolph  Meyer,  one  of  the  foremost  psy- 
chiatrists, had  told  him  that  sixty  per  cent,  of  women 
in  this  country  were  frigid. 

My  acquaintance  spoke  up  and  said,  "  My  wife  is  one 
of  them." 

I  replied,  "  But  that  statement  is  not  true,  and  I  will 
stake  what  little  reputation  I  have  that  not  one-sixth 
of  one  per  cent,  of  women  in  this  country  are  frigid; 
so  if  your  wife  is  such  I  have  discovered  a  rare  case. 
It  will  make  the  third  in  my  professional  life."  I  con- 
tinued, "  The  chances  are  ten  thousand  to  one  that 
your  wife  is  as  normal  as  mine,  or  as  the  ordinary 
woman."  He  hoped  that  this  might  be  true,  for  his 
sufferings  had  been  intense  during  ten  years  of  faith- 
fulness to  her.  He  informed  me  that  they  had  become 
cold  toward  each  other,  that  the  early  caresses  and 
tokens  of  affection  had  long  since  been  dispensed  with, 
that  there  was  little  pleasure  in  living,  for  either,  that 
he  was  much  worried  concerning  her  health  and  his 
own,  finally  saying  that  no  outsider  realized  how  close 
his  home  was  on  the  rocks.  In  spite  of  his  claim  that 
his  wife  never  had  shown  sex  desire  in  the  ten  years 
of  their  married  life,  I  daringly  told  him  that,  though 
I  was  not  quack  enough  to  make  an  absolute  guarantee, 
since   there   was    the   remote   possibility    of   his    wife's 


INTRODUCTION  19 

being  abnormal,  I  would,  with  this  reservation,  engage, 
as  a  friend,  to  have  them  both  happy,  contented,  and 
gaining  weight,  and  his  wife  welcoming  rather  than 
repulsing  his  sexual  advances,  and  all  within  a  month. 

Of  course  one  may  say  that  this  was  egotism,  bragga- 
docio, or  guess-work  on  my  part,  but  the  fact  is  that 
such  cases  had  been  so  numerous  in  my  experience  and 
the  results  so  universally  the  same  that  I  thought  I 
might  be  pardoned  for  discounting  an  occasional  one 
in  advance.  Anyway,  within  two  weeks  from  that  con- 
versation I  accidentally  saw  her  put  her  hand  in  his 
and  snuggle  up  to  him  and  saw  him  put  his  arm  around 
her  and  look  caressingly  down  upon  her,  little  evi- 
dences of  affection  which  he  had  told  me  had  not  hap- 
pened in  his  family  for  years.  He  also  told  me,  and 
she  corroborated  it,  that  during  this  two  weeks,  she  had 
had  and  manifested  sexual  desire  during  intercourse 
three  nights  in  succession,  and  that  on  the  fourth  night 
she  had  had  a  perfect  orgasm,  and  that  after  an  interval 
of  four  days,  without  the  ordinary  attempts  at  excita- 
tion, she  had  manifested  spontaneous  desire  and  had 
had  a  perfectly  satisfactory  and  complete  orgasm. 
This  couple,  whose  love  was  growing  cold,  whose  home 
was  near  the  rocks,  who  had  little  zest  in  living,  who, 
for  days  at  a  time,  would  "  nag  "  each  other  without 
knowing  why,  and  then  for  days  pass  each  other  si- 
lently, like  ships  in  the  night,  feeling  all  the  while  re- 
morse for  their  treatment  of  each  other,  both  thin, 
both  nervous,  and  both  worried  about  each  other's 
health,  had  given  up  their  hopes  of  a  happy  married 
life,  after  consulting  all  the  books  they  could  find,  as 
well  as  several  doctors. 

What  did  I  do  under  these  circumstances?  I  first 
learned  some  of  the  husband's  history,  then  gave  him 


20  INTRODUCTION 

my  book  and  some  manuscripts  to  read,  and  told  him 
to  read  it  all  to  her  or  get  her  to  read  it  by  herself. 
After  this  preparation,  I  began  to  talk  over  the  manu- 
script  which   I   was   working   on   with   them   at   every 
opportunity.     I  asked  for  advice  and  suggestions.     I 
gave  them  some  other   sex  books   to  read,   criticising 
some  passages,  praising  others,  and  casually  told  them 
some  of  the  problems  that  I  myself  had  faced  and  solved 
in  the  first  ten  years  of  my  own  married  life.     Going 
a  little  more  into  the  history,  the  husband  had  been 
reared  by  an  overloving  and  jealous  mother  who  had 
lost  her  husband  when  the  boy  was  young.     She  had 
frightened  him  about  masturbation  and  had  so  instilled 
it  into  his  mind  that  he  must  not  touch  himself  that 
even  now  he  had  great  repugnance  to  the  ordinary  toilet 
of  his   sexual  organs.      This   repugnance   extended   to 
caressing  and  preliminary   excitation  of  his  wife,   al- 
though he  believed   this   proper  and  had  made  many 
half-hearted  efforts  in  this  direction.     His  mother  had 
also  frightened  him  about  emissions.     He  had  mastur- 
bated more  or  less  and  had  worn  strings  with  shells 
tied   to   them  to   make   him   lie    on   his    side   and   thus 
prevent  emissions,   which  had   at   times  been   frequent 
and   were   now   increasing   in    frequenc}'.     His   mother 
had  broken  up  several  of  his  love-affairs  and  had  tried 
to  prevent  his  marriage  a  few  days  before  its  occur- 
rence.    I  advised  him  to  be  very  confidential  with  his 
wife  in  talking  over  sex  matters,  and  after  explaining 
the  origin  of  his  repugnance,  told  him  to  try  to  over- 
come it  and  not  to  spare  caresses. 

I  then  tried  to  talk  with  his  wife,  though  we  were 
both  somewhat  diffident  at  first,  she  always  having  been 
so  on  sex  subjects  and  I  not  having  much  of  an  excuse 
for  talking   such  matters   over   with   her;   but   I   had 


INTRODUCTION  21 

learned  from  the  husband  that  menstruation,  which 
had  given  her  httle  trouble  before  marriage,  was  be- 
coming increasingly  disturbing  and  painful.  I  made 
this  an  excuse  for  conversation  and  gave  it  as  my 
opinion  that  absence  of  sexual  satisfaction  was  the  sole 
cause  of  this  difficulty.  As  I  grew  bolder,  I  learned 
that  as  a  girl  in  school  she  had  heard  of  sexual  matters 
and  seen  sexual  sights  which,  on  the  one  hand,  had 
shocked  and  disgusted  her,  but  which,  on  the  other, 
had  attracted  and  erotically  excited  her.  No  one  had 
taught  her  concerning  these  matters,  but  the  absorp- 
tion of  current  opinion  had  led  her  to  believe  that 
everything  connected  with  sex  was  low  and  immoral. 
After  marriage,  her  husband's  mother  had  tried  to 
alienate  her  husband's  affections  from  her,  and  hers 
from  him.  Though  this  effort  had  not  been  successful, 
she  had  at  times  thought  that  her  husband  cared  little 
for  her.  She  was  ashamed  of  sex  and  afraid  to  re- 
spond to  his  advances,  in  her  own  words,  never  could 
let  herself  go.  She  could  not  and  would  not  talk 
these  matters  over  with  him,  so  they  were  never  con- 
fidential about  them.  She  had  had  desire  enough  at 
times,  especially  preceding  menstruation,  but  had  so 
sedulously  concealed  it  from  him  that  he  had  believed 
her  to  be  absolutely  cold.  She  actually  thought  him 
rather  low  and  brutal  because  he  had  manifested  a  hus- 
band's natural  desires.  By  means  of  books,  manu- 
scripts, talks,  and  illustrations  I  got  these  false  notions 
pretty  well  out  of  her  head  and  she  became  a  willing 
listener  to  my  advice,  with  the  results  already  men- 
tioned. 

Any  one  at  all  conversant  with  these  things  knows 
as  well  as  I  that,  whereas  they  would  have  been  miser- 
able together  a  few  years  longer  perhaps,  then  one  or 


22  INTRODUCTION 

the  other  or  both  would  have  gone  to  a  sanitarium,  or 
they  would  have  broken  up  altogether,  now  neither 
weal  nor  woe  can  separate  them  and  they  will  be  happy 
to  the  end  of  their  days,  which  will  surely  last  some 
years  longer  than  would  have  been  the  case  without 
my  presumptuous  intervention. 

I  learned  some  other  things  from  this  man.  He 
told  me  of  a  physician  whom  I  knew  to  be  modern, 
educated  and  of  the  best  repute,  who  declared  that  he 
would  take  his  own  seventeen-year-old  son  to  a  pros- 
titute to  initiate  him  in  promiscuity,  stating  that  he 
would  do  this  ratlier  than  have  the  son  learn  to  mas- 
turbate, for  this  would  certainly  kill  him.  To  me  it 
is  almost  unbelievable  that  such  criminal  ignorance 
can  exist  here  in  New  England  in  the  twentieth  century ; 
and  yet  I  realize  that  there  are  those  who  would  con- 
sider me  equally  culpable  for  telling  my  four  husky 
boys,  after  warning  them  never  under  an}'  circum- 
stances to  take  liberties  with  girls,  to  cut  off  their 
right  hands  sooner  than  have  intercourse  with  a  pros- 
titute or  with  any  other  woman  except  their  wives ; 
that  if  they  could  no  longer  contain,  after  following 
all  my  directions,  occasional  masturbation  never  hurt 
any  one  morally  nor  physically  and  never  would,  and 
that  any  such  necessary  occurrence  need  not  diminish 
their  own  self-respect.  Be  that  as  it  may,  my  wife 
and  I  are  proud  of  them ;  and  three  of  them  are  fighting 
for  Uncle  Sam,  while  the  fourth,  who  is  seventeen,  is 
eager  to  be  doing  so. 

This  man  told  me  of  another  case.  A  certain  evan- 
gelist taught  a  young  man  to  masturbate.  This  young 
man  got  very  much  frightened  about  this,  very  likely 
through  the  influence  of  some  other  evangelist.  He 
believed  himself  headed  for  physical   decrepitude  and 


INTRODUCTION  £3 

moral  ruin.  He  worried  about  this  constantly  and 
spent  much  time  on  his  knees  praying  to  be  freed  from 
his  slavery  to  this  practice,  though  often  in  the  midst 
of  his  prayers  he  would  jump  up  and  masturbate.  Any 
intelligent  man  or  woman  could  cure  a  sad  case  like 
this  within  a  week.  I  have  had  a  number  just  such, 
and  no  moral  or  physical  ruin  has  occurred  in  any  of 
them,  and  the  symptoms  disappeared  like  magic.  I 
convinced  them  that  no  disastrous  physical  results 
were  possible  and  providing  relief  was  necessary,  there 
was  no  vice  nor  crime  in  obtaining  it.  I  assured  them 
that  God  would  not  impose  on  man  a  burden  heavier 
than  he  could  bear.  After  this  easing  of  the  mind, 
which  in  itself  greatly  diminished  the  sexual  impulse, 
I  advised  them  to  occupy  themselves  and  never  to  think 
of  these  things,  telling  them  that  if  emissions  came 
often  enough  to  relieve  them,  all  was  well  and  good; 
if  not  and  resistance  was  difficult  or  impossible,  to 
masturbate  what  was  necessary  and  forget  about  it, 
just  as  they  would  after  any  call  of  nature.  With 
this  advice,  some  stopped  masturbation  altogether  and, 
as  far  as  I  could  find  out,  no  one  continued  to  mastur- 
bate over  three  or  four  times  a  week,  which  is  about 
the  average  of  normal  intercourse  between  healthy  mar- 
ried people.  All  became  happy,  robust,  and  moral, 
and  some  are  now  the  proud  fathers  and  mothers  of 
children  who  would  delight  the  eugenic  enthusiasts. 

One  more  possible  lesson  from  this  chance  acquaint- 
ance. This  man's  mother,  it  will  be  remembered,  lost 
her  husband  when  at  the  acme  of  her  sexual  power. 
It  is  known  that  her  relations  with  her  husband  were 
normal  and  satisfying,  in  spite  of  her  almost  morbid 
fear  of  all  things  sexual.  She  became  worried  concern- 
ing the  boy's  habits,  exceedingly  devoted  to  him  and 


M  INTRODUCTION 

jealous  of  him  and  finally  insane.  This  was  probably 
an  CEdipus  complex.  Is  it  too  much  of  an  assumption 
for  me  to  say  that  a  few  hours  of  sensible  talk  from  an 
understanding  man  or  woman  would  have  made  her  per- 
fectly normal  and  prevented  her  insanity  altogether.'' 
Perhaps  one  would  not  consider  this  assumption  un- 
warranted after  considering  with  me  the  lives  of  a 
dozen  women  in  identical  circimnstances,  with  indentical 
temperaments,  and  all  having  the  same  point  of  view, 
and  all  in  various  stages  of  neurosis,  fast  approaching 
psychosis.  They  were  all  ashamed  of  a  normal  sex 
instinct  and  frightened  at  any  manifestation  of  desire 
and  passion  which,  after  the  loss  of  their  husbands, 
there  appeared  to  be  no  moral  provision  for.  A  few 
convincing  arguments,  like  those  used  in  cases  cited 
in  Rational  Sex  Ethics  and  in  other  parts  of  this  vol- 
ume, were  all  that  was  necessary  to  bring  about  an 
almost  immediate  resumption  of  normal  life  activities, 
interests,  and  usefulness.  Such  cases  are  sprinkled 
through  my  case-book  during  a  period  of  over  twenty 
years.  No  one  has  become  neurotic  a  second  time. 
No  one  has  fallen  by  the  wayside,  and,  to  my  knowledge, 
not  one  has  died,  though  some  of  these  women  are  now 
over  seventy  years  of  age. 


RATIONAL  SEX  ETHICS 
FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 


RATIONAL  SEX  ETHICS 
FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

CHAPTER  I 
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY 

PART    I.    AN    APPRECIATION    AND    A    CRITICISM,    WITH 
REPORT    OF    CASES 

Dr.  Trigant  Burrow,  in  his  article,  Psycho-analysis 
and  Society,  in  the  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology, 
January,  1913,  very  clearly,  concisely,  and  eth- 
ically touches  a  topic  with  which  the  writer  long  has 
been  concerned.  In  a  journal  which  has  had  no  trivial 
or  barren  articles  from  its  inception,  there  certainly 
have  been  few  so  incapable  of  misinterpretation  or 
more  phraseologically  and  etymologically  accurate,  and 
none  more  correct  in  their  ethical  deductions  than  those 
from  the  above-named  author.  While  the  present 
writer  has  no  sympathy  with  crass  materialism  and 
is  as  much  of  an  idealist  as  Dr.  Burrow,  he  refers  to 
some  of  the  statements  made  in  the  article  mentioned 
in  a  way  which  might  be  called  critical.  We  believe 
that  he  has  stated  what  should  be  our  correct  attitude 
on  man}^  questions,  and  that  he  has  done  so  more  com- 
prehensibly than  anyone  else  has  done.  Nevertheless, 
some  of  the  statements  are  believed  to  have  been  too 

strong   for  humanity,  unless   it  is   to   reach   Infinity. 

27 


28  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

"  Hitch  your  wagon  to  a  star,"  is  an  admirablvS 
metaphor  and  has  a  beautifully  transcendentalizing 
sentiment.  "  Hitch  your  zeppelin  to  a  star,"  would 
be  more  in  keeping  with  the  conditions.  Wagons  are 
"  of  the  earth,  earthy  "  and  must  of  necessity  be 
hitched  to  some  terrestrial  object.  Humanity  is  like 
the  wagon,  and,  like  it,  must  travel  hard  roads.  In 
spite  of  Daidelus,  Icarus  flew  too  high  and  paid  the 
penalty.  Of  course  it  was  better  to  have  been  in  the 
upper  regions  and  to  have  "  hobnobbed  "  with  the  In- 
finite than  to  have  flown  ignobly  too  low  and  to  have 
gone  down  without  the  broad  perspective,  but  let  it  not 
be  forgotten  that  he  had  to  drown  in  the  same  water 
either  way.  After  much  experience,  it  would  seem  that 
pragmatism  is  the  best  idealism  and  that  the  "  golden 
mean,"  even  in  modern  science,  is  not  obsolete. 

Several  years  before  Breuer  and  Freud  made  their 
memorable  contribution  to  hysteria,  which  I  neither 
read  nor  heard  of  till  ten  years  later,  I  learned  that 
the  conflict  between  the  theoretically  right  and  the 
supposedly  wrong,  in  other  words,  sexual  sublimation 
and  subjugation  versus  sexual  expression  or  relief 
(whether  psychic  or  physical,  or  the  two  intimately 
blended)  was  the  cause,  or  a  cause,  of  neurosis  and 
psychosis  in  many  cases.  Long  before  knowing 
Freud's  dictum,  the  conclusion  was  arrived  at  that  this 
moral  conflict  was  at  the  basis  of  most  nervous  and 
much  psychic  trouble,  but  even  now  it  is  not  considered 
etiological  for  all.  Pyscho-analysis  is  a  recent  and 
dignified  term,  but  for  twenty  years  I  have  been  arriv- 
ing at  the  hidden  conscious  lives  of  patients  and  friends 
and  at  much  that  is  now  called  unconscious  or  sub- 
conscious without  an  elaborate  technique  or  a  supernal 
erudition.     While  the  sub-conscious  or  unconscious  ex- 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        29 

ists,  and  at  times  holds  its  traumas  and  repressions, 
these  may  be  arrived  at  by  methods  simpler  than 
Freud's,  if  they  are  necessary  to  effect  a  permanent 
cure,  in  most  neuroses  and  psycho-neuroses.  All  phy- 
sicians and  psychologists  must  know,  but  very  few  apply 
a  simple  principle  which  will  cause  the  unconscious 
to  dwindle  to  much  less  than  its  present  fancied  colossal 
proportions.  The  principle  is  enunciated  in  the  three 
words :  confidence  inspires  confidence.  If  you  confide 
to  your  patient  your  hopes  and  aspirations,  your  de- 
feats and  triumphs,  your  financial  reverses  or  successes, 
he  will  reciprocate  in  kind.  If  you  are  not  too  shy 
about  any  sexual  remissness  that  you  are  heartily 
ashamed  of,  he  or  she  also  will  be  confidential.  You 
do  not  have  to  go  to  your  unconscious  self  for  these 
things,  neither  do  they  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases; 
if  the  experience  with  several  hundred  normal  people 
and  many  neurotic  and  psychic  cases,  covering  a  period 
of  twenty  years,  teaches  anything.  While  this  method 
is  perfectly  simple,  one  should  have  common  sense,  tact, 
some  altruism,  and  a  sound  practical  ethics,  highly 
tinged  with  idealism ;  and  one  should  not  have  sexual 
self-interest  or  self-consciousness,  fear  of  derogation  or 
criticism,  or  the  attitude  of  a  superior  moralist. 

I  agree  with  Dr.  Burrow  that  psycho-analysis  has  no 
bearing  on  the  realities  which  underlie  the  symbols  of 
religion.  It  detracts  nothing  from  rational  religion 
for  it  to  admit  that  the  hideousness  of  license  and  pro- 
miscuity drove  religion  and  ethics  to  demand  an  abso- 
lute asceticism,  which  extreme  all  informed  people  must 
now  admit  was  as  far  too  right  as  the  other  extreme 
was  too  wrong.  Ideals  change  with  civilizations ; 
houris.  Nirvana,  super-sense,  are  all,  to  a  certain  ex- 
tent, relative.     "  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is 


so  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

he."  The  fact  stands  out  plainl}'  that,  for  humanity 
to  avoid  absolute  pessimism,  ethics  and  health,  or  abil- 
ity to  live,  must  be  synonymous.  A  social  construction 
of  Spencerian  ethics  would  regard  the  psychotic  or 
neurotic,  from  sexual  abstinence,  equally  culpable  with 
the  one  from  sexual  excess.  Every  one  recognizes  in- 
stantly that  sex  ideals  are  often  too  low  for  human- 
ity's best  good.  No  one  seems  to  recognize  that  sex 
ideals  can  be  too  high,  yet  no  demonstration  is  neces- 
sary to  show  that  the  far  swing  of  the  pendulum  to 
asceticism  defeats  all  ideals  for  the  future.  Neurotics 
usually  seek  too  high  an  altitude  and  condemn  self  too 
severely  for  any  remissness  or  fancied  remissness.  Dr. 
Burrow  says,  "  Shall  psycho-analysis  seek  to  cure  the 
neurosis  by  shattering  the  social  ideal?  "  and  this,  he 
says,  "  is  the  selfish,  personal,  and  impermanent  way, 
not  the  way  that  looks  to  the  larger  social  interests." 
Again  he  says,  "  Does  it  not  seem  that  the  logical  sub- 
limation for  unconscious  repression  is  conscious  con- 
trol? " 

Now  no  one  who  has  had  experience  with  nervous 
people  or  with  ordinary,  so-called  well  people  will  deny 
that  for  one  case  of  unconscious  repression  there  are 
scores  and  perhaps  hundreds,  where  there  has  been  con- 
scious control  or  attempted  control.  Relief  has  come 
only  from  modifying  the  ideal  (if  one  chooses  to  con- 
sider complete  control  possible,  or  by  recognizing  the 
inexorable  demands  of  nature  if  one  believes,  as  I  do, 
absolute  control  to  be  ordinarily  impossible),  lessening 
the  self-condemnation  for  errors  or  fancied  errors,  or 
in  some  way  modifying  the  standards  formerly  adhered 
to.  When  the  comparatively  few  cases  are  consid- 
ered, whose  unconscious  complexes  are  brought  to  the 
light  of  day,  how  much  better  will  they  deal  with  them 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        31 

than  their  brothers  or  sisters  who  have  had  such  con- 
scious complexes  have  done?  One  thing  is  certain.  No 
one  can  look  to  the  larger  social  interest  unless  he 
keeps  out  of  a  sanitarium  or  psycho-pathic  hospital. 
It  is  equally  certain  that  ideals  have  put  most  people 
who  are  in  these  places  there.  Shall  people  be  encour- 
aged to  cling  to  these  identical  ideals  or  shall  they  be 
helped,  as  is  necessary  for  prophylaxis  or  cure,  to  mod- 
ify them,  but  not  enough  to  cause  individual  moral 
laxness  or  social  harm.''  Are  we  ourselves  ashamed  of 
our  own  ideals  or  of  nature .?  If  not,  why  do  we  in- 
sist on  neurotic  patients  having  ideals  far  and  away 
above  our  own?  The  ordinary,  well-balanced,  pro- 
ductive, moral,  altruistic  man  or  medico  is  married  and 
properly  sexually  adjusted,  perhaps  one  half  the  popu- 
lation are  so  adjusted,  and  such  adjustment  is  ad- 
mittedly a  valuable  asset  toward  health  and  long  life. 
All  call  it  desirable,  and  many  consider  it  absolutely 
necessary,  for  the  proper  physical  and  mental  health 
of  either  sex.  Yet  one  half  the  population  is  without 
this  adjustment,  the  woman  unavoidably  and  the  man 
often  ignorantly,  selfishly,  or  short-sightedly. 

We  whose  "  lines  are  cast  in  pleasant  places  "  en- 
courage or  impose  on  the  less  fortunate,  burdens  which 
we  ourselves,  frankly,  could  not  bear.  I'll  not  say 
would  not,  though  some  would  not,  but  certainly  many 
could  not.  It  is  folly  to  say  that  the  average  normal 
man  or  woman  can  remain  so,  and  be  absolutely  con- 
tinent for  a  long  period  of  years.  It  is  vicious  to 
encourage  sexual  promiscuity,  and  the  average  doctor 
or  person  revolts  at  it.  There  is  one  standard  for  a 
married  person  and  another  for  an  unmarried  one. 
Married  men  and  single  men,  married  women  and  sin- 
gle women  are  made  just  alike  and  have  like  instincts 


32  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  needs.  Some  of  the  segregated  ones  resort  to  pro- 
miscuity, some  to  auto-erotism,  all  to  one  or  the  other, 
at  least  occasionally,  during  certain  years  of  develop- 
ment or  of  strongest  virility.  I  say  all  advisedly,  for 
any  exceptions  due  to  unusual  power  of  resistance  or 
to  abnormally  weak  sexuality'  are  so  few  in  either  male 
or  female  sex  as  to  be  negligible.  Many  reconcile 
themselves  to  the  worst  possible  solution,  so  far  as  they 
themselves  or  society  are  concerned,  and  have  pro- 
miscuous relations.  Many  others,  whose  ideals  are 
higher,  seek  auto-erotically  what  relief  is  necessary  and 
constantly  reproach  themselves  for  their  fancied  degra- 
dation. 

Now  then,  whether  necessar}^  or  not,  practically  every 
member  of  the  community  does,  during  certain  years, 
attain,  with  greater  or  less  frequency,  some  form  of 
conscious  sex  relief  or  satisfaction.  If  strict  conti- 
nence is  the  ideal,  all  transgress,  either  by  promiscuity, 
auto-erotism,  perversions  or  pseudo-perversions.  The 
difference  between  the  ordinary  neurotic  and  the  ordi- 
nary, supposedly  normal  individual  is  that  the  former, 
though  he,  as  a  rule,  transgresses  his  ethical  code  less 
frequently  and  less  completely  than  the  latter,  has 
never  lowered  or  changed  his  ideals  at  all  and  as  he  is 
invariably  reticent  thinks  himself  almost  unique  in 
sinning.  The  normal  individual,  from  his  more  com- 
municative nature  and  wider  experience,  realizes  that 
he  is  not  unique,  and  that,  if  he  has  sinned,  all  human- 
ity is  "  tarred  wdth  the  same  stick."  Though  he  may 
be  still  an  idealist  and  have  transcendent  notions,  he 
has  also  learned  that  "  we  are  but  dust  "  and,  if  the 
traditional  code  demands  the  impossible  and  is  con- 
trary to  nature,  no  ideals  are  jeopardized  by  proper 
recognition  of  natural  instincts.     He  allows  somewhat 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        33 

for  his  instincts  and  admits  the  physical  man  or  woman 
to  some  place  in  his  categories.  In  short,  I  mean  to 
say  that  we  medicos  and  many  other  people,  who  are 
fairly  normal,  are  so  as  the  result  of  squarely  and 
consciously  facing  ourselves  and  our  pasts,  and  with- 
out magnifying  the  good  or  minimizing  the  bad,  uniting 
all  qualities  in  a  ps3-chic  whole. 

The  neurotic  magnifies  the  real  or  fancied  moral  de- 
linquencies in  which,  from  his  inexperience  with  the 
world,  he  imagines  himself  to  be  unique,  and  at  the  same 
time  under-estimates  the  good  qualities.  He  splits  off 
a  portion  of  his  personality  and  constantly  dwells  on 
this  Mr.  Hyde  part  of  himself.  He  tries  to  get  rid 
of  him,  and  when  he  does,  Freud  must  be  invoked  to 
bring  him  back.  But  mind,  he  does  not  get  rid  of  Mr. 
Hyde  as  often  as  Freud  or  many  others  think,  nor 
nearly  as  often  as  he  would  try  to  make  us  believe. 
When  the  neurotic  is  brought  in  rapport  with  the 
physician  and  proper  transference,  which  is  based  on 
confidence  rather  than  on  libido,  has  occurred,  he  will 
tell  all  about  his  troubles  and  may  be  readily  cured  by 
suggestion  and  re-education.  As  to  what  suggestions 
may  be  proper,  little  of  value  can  be  found  in  the 
numerous  studies  of  abnormal  sexuality.  It  would  seem 
that  lessons  learned  from  the  sex  lives  of  those  sup- 
posedly nearest  normal  would  make  the  safest  criterion. 
I  have  devoted  much  time  to  the  study  of  the  details 
of  the  sex  lives  of  normal  people  of  the  better  class. 
The  adjustments  and  compromises  resorted  to  and  the 
standards  arrived  at  by  these  people  have,  to  a  large 
extent,  been  used  as  a  basis  for  the  treatment  of  neu- 
rotics by  suggestion,  and  in  their  re-education.  The 
reasons  for  this  method  are  too  long  to  permit  of  their 
entering  into  this  article,  but  the  method  will  appear 


84.  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  the  results  will  be  obvious  after  consideration  of  the 
following  cases.  If  any  ideas  seem  unconventional,  let 
it  be  remembered  that  the  conventions,  though  right  and 
necessary,  impose  severe  penalties  on  many  helpless 
women  and  on  some  misguided  or  uncourageous  men. 
Unquestionably  the  conventionalized  home  and  family 
are  bought  at  the  price  of  prostitution  or  auto-erotism. 
Either  price  may  be  high,  but  certainly  the  former  is 
unnecessarily  so. 

The  case  under  consideration  is  that  of  a  young 
woman  who  first  consulted  me  at  the  age  of  twenty-six. 
She  was  under  treatment,  off  and  on,  for  about  a  year, 
though  she  did  more  or  less  work  after  the  first  three 
months.  At  present  she  is  in  excellent  physical  and 
mental  health  and  has  been  for  several  years.  Before 
her  final  nervous  breakdown,  she  had  several  minor  at- 
tacks. Previous  to  the  time  of  consulting  me  she  had 
been  unable  to  do  any  work  for  several  months.  At 
this  time  she  could  not  read  nor  think.  She  suffered 
from  insomnia  and  anorexia,  had  constant  headaches, 
cried  much  of  the  time,  and  continually  dwelt  on  her 
bad  feelings  and  her  inability  to  support  herself.  She 
had  almost  omnipresent,  entirely  involuntary  sexual 
feelings  and  sexual  imaginings  with  a  certain  young 
man  as  the  object,  though  there  was,  at  this  period, 
practically  no  auto-erotic  relief.  This  patient  was 
very  religious  and  conscientious  and  had  worked  hard 
to  educate  herself  for  a  learned  profession.  She  had 
had  a  long-drawn-out  struggle  between  sex  and  her 
ideals.  Her  sex  experiences  were  first  learned  in  detail, 
and  are  given  here  complete  by  themselves,  though 
there  were  many  interruptions  in  the  way  of  advice 
and  suggestion  in  the  course  of  the  narrative. 

Her  father  always  had  been  somewhat  nervous  and 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        35 

was  some  five  years  older  than  her  mother,  who  was 
sixty-five  and  in  good  health.  She  had  two  brothers 
and  a  sister,  who  always  had  been  well.  One  brother 
had  died  from  a  rheumatic  affection  of  the  heart.  At 
the  age  of  four  or  five,  her  twin  brother  told  her  how 
the  Sunday  school  teacher  got  her  little  girl.  Shortly 
after  this,  she  examined  herself  to  see  if  she  had  the 
same  anatomy  and  began  to  masturbate  with  a  button- 
hook that  had  a  wooden  handle.  She  could  remember 
no  sensations  at  this  early  period.  On  one  or  two  occa- 
sions she  was  left  at  home  with  her  two  brothers  and 
they  played  at  being  animals.  They  undressed  and 
the  older  brother  assumed  the  role  of  the  mother  cow 
and  was  going  to  feed  the  brother  and  sister.  On  an- 
other occasion  her  cousin  came  in  and  wanted  to  play 
at  man  and  wife,  but  she  refused  to  play  this  game  with 
him  or  with  any  one  except  her  twin  brother,  though, 
for  two  or  three  years  she  and  he  indulged  in  this  pas- 
time. The  brother  had  no  erection  and  she  had  no 
sensation,  and  on  the  older  brother's  learning  of  this  he 
told  them  not  to  do  it  and  it  was  stopped. 

At  the  age  of  four  or  five,  after  severe  paroxysms  of 
coughing  during  an  attack  of  whooping  cough,  there 
was  a  slight  show  of  blood  from  the  vagina.  Though 
this  had  been  forgotten  for  years,  she  was  then  much 
frightened  and  the  blood  was  attributed  to  this  play 
with  her  brother.  She  always  has  had  a  horror  of 
blood,  and  since  a  nervous  attack  three  years  before, 
often  has  dreamed  of  this  brother's  being  violently 
killed  or  terribly  injured,  and  in  these  dreams  both  she 
and  her  brother  were  very  much  frightened.  This 
brother  was  almost  her  sole  playmate  until  the  age  of 
twelve. 

At  the  age  of  eight  or  nine  she  went  berrying  with 


36  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

three  or  four  other  little  girls,  and  on  two  or  three 
occasions  they  exposed  themselves  to  each  other  by 
lifting  their  skirts.  Nothing  definite  further  was  re- 
membered for  several  years  except  that  there  was  occa- 
sional masturbation.  At  eleven  or  twelve  the  orgasm 
was  attained  by  pressure  against  some  object.  At 
fourteen  or  fifteen,  she  began  to  use  a  hairbrush  handle. 
At  this  time  she  became  religious  and  began  to  worry 
about  the  moral  and  physical  consequences  of  her  prac- 
tice. 

She  had  a  very  slight  spinal  curvature,  which  was 
being  treated  at  this  time  and  she  always  thought  that 
this  spinal  trouble  was  the  result  of  her  practice,  since 
the  position  assumed  while  masturbating  would  soon 
bring  on  pain  in  her  back.  Masturbation  was  never  at 
any  time  practiced  oftener  than  once  a  week.  Her 
menstruation  was  somewhat  irregular  and  this  was  also 
attributed  to  masturbation.  At  seventeen  she  was  so 
impressed  with  the  evil  of  the  practice  that  she  prayed 
to  be  punished  if  she  ever  did  it  again,  and  she  re- 
frained until  about  twenty.  She  was  desperately  nerv- 
ous all  through  this  period.  At  this  time  she  and  her 
brother's  chum,  though  not  intimate,  were  good  friends, 
and  she  had  day-dreams  in  which  she  imagined  that  they 
married  and  went  West  together,  though  she  usually 
thought  herself  unfit  to  marry,  because  of  masturbation 
and  her  spinal  trouble. 

At  the  age  of  twenty  she  changed  her  residence  and 
began  to  go  with  another  young  man,  concerning  whom 
she  had  frequent  day  dreams  of  an  erotic  nature.  She 
began  to  masturbate  occasionally,  especially  during 
vacations,  when  her  time  was  not  so  fully  taken  up 
with  her  studies.     She  was  deeply  interested  in   this 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        37 

young  man  for  two  or  three  years,  but  later  and  now 
there  was  and  is  only  a  sisterly  feeling  for  liim. 

At  about  the  age  of  twenty-two  she  met  a  young  man 
to  whom  she  was  instantly  and  strongly  attracted. 
Their  ideals  and  work  were  similar,  which  fostered  their 
attachment,  which  was  never  very  intimate,  though  she 
later  learned  that  he  was  deeply  interested  in  her. 
Returning  to  school  broke  up  their  companionship, 
though  she  continued  to  have  day-dreams  concerning 
him,  at  first  on  the  highest  ethical  plane,  later,  when 
she  became  nervous,  colored  with  erotic  fancies,  in 
spite  of  all  efforts  to  avoid  this  later  phase.  After  his 
engagement  to  another  girl,  all  day-dreaming  ceased. 

Some  time  later,  at  about  twenty-five,  she  met  an- 
other young  man  whose  tastes  and  aspirations  were 
also  similar  to  hers.  He  was  more  of  a  physical  tj^pe 
than  the  former  and  she  did  not  like  him  at  first,  but 
he  was  very  attentive  and  she  soon  began  to  admire 
him  and  have  day-dreams,  of  somewhat  erotic  nature, 
about  him.  She  always  attempted  to  repress  these 
erotic  fancies,  with  only  partial  success.  Now  they 
became  entirely  involuntary.  This  3'oung  man  being 
interested  in  physical  culture,  eugenics,  etc.,  before 
proposing  marriage  asked  that  he  be  allowed  to  make 
a  digital  examination  per  vaginam  to  ascertain  if  she 
were  anatomically  adapted  for  child-bearing.  She  at 
first  objected,  but  began  to  worry  about  the  possibil- 
ity of  malformation,  and  thought  it  no  worse  to  have 
him  make  an  examination  than  to  have  some  physician 
whom  she  did  not  know  examine  her.  So  she  finally 
allowed  this  and  he  was  satisfied  with  the  examination, 
which  apparently  caused  no  sexual  disturbance  in  either 
party,  though  she  had  erotic  feelings  later  when  think- 


38  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

ing  of  it.  Two  evenings  later,  the  eve  of  his  departure 
for  another  state,  he  took  the  liberty  to  feel  of  her 
and  to  again  insert  his  finger  in  her  vagina.  She  al- 
lowed this  for  a  moment  or  two  and  then  demanded 
that  he  desist.  She  was  erotically  excited  and  the  feel- 
ings persisted  for  some  time.  He  was  evidently  mak- 
ing strong  efforts  to  control  himself,  but  proposed  in- 
tercourse, which  proposal  she  immediately  rejected, 
telling  him  he  had  no  right.  She  later  made  excuses 
to  me  for  him  for  making  this  proposal,  since  she 
thought  he  had  done  so  from  philanthropic  motives, 
i.e.,  she  thought  that  he  thought  that  her  nervous  con- 
dition was  due  to  sexual  repression,  and  he  proposed 
intercourse  for  her  sake  rather  than  his  own.  This 
was  their  last  meeting,  though  they  corresponded  for 
some  six  months  longer.  She  had  told  him  of  her  sex- 
ual life  and  its  resistances,  and  of  her  auto-erotic  ex- 
periences, and  he  had  told  her  of  similar  experiences 
and  of  his  belief  that  auto-erotism  was  never  justifiable, 
though  he  admitted  lapses  from  this  ideal.  Their  cor- 
respondence began  to  wane,  he  met  and  married  another 
girl. 

During  this  period  she  was  nervous  and  worried  and 
gave  up  her  position.  She  had  day-dreams  of  being 
married  to  him  and  of  fulfilling  all  the  functions  of  a 
wife  and  mother.  Several  times  at  night  she  had  sex- 
ual dreams  of  him,  but  she  did  not  masturbate  more 
than  once  or  twice  for  a  period  of  six  months.  This 
brought  her  history  down  to  the  time  when  she  came 
under  the  writer's  care.  For  one  of  her  religious  and 
conscientious  nature,  the  struggle  between  sex  and 
her  ideals  had  been  fearful,  persistent,  and  long  drawn 
out,  and  though  repression  was  constant,  it  had  been 
seldom  complete.     She  always  felt  ashamed,  disgraced, 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        39 

unworthy,  and  for  years  thought  herself  unfit  for  mar- 
riage, though  home,  husband,  and  children  were  her 
highest  earthly  ideals. 

She  readily  understood  on  explanation  that  her  now 
almost  constant  sexual  desire  and  the  frequent  un- 
sought, involuntary  mental  pictures  of  herself  and  the 
young  man  in  sexual  relations  were  not  signs  of  de- 
pravity but  the  final  giving  way  of  her  strong  moral 
and  religious  nature  to  an  imperious,  well-developed  sex 
nature.  These  things  were  now  involuntary  and  she 
was  not  her  own  mistress,  therefore  not  responsible. 
She  was  told  that,  in  order  to  recover,  she  must  make 
some  concessions  to  her  natural  instincts.  There 
seemed  no  way  but  moderate  auto-erotic  relief  with- 
out shame,  repugnance,  or  self-abnegation.  She  was 
told  that  under  the  complexities  of  modern  life  all  could 
not  be  accommodated  or  adjusted  sexually  as  many  of 
us  thought  all  should  be.  If  the  opportunity  for  love 
and  marriage  did  not  present,  promiscuity  was  wrong 
and  not  to  be  thought  of  or  tolerated,  but  it  was  equally 
wrong,  for  herself  and  society,  to  carry  sex  repression 
to  the  extent  of  producing  physical  incapacity  or  men- 
tal alienation.  In  her  case  the  former  had  already  su- 
pervened and  the  latter  was  imminent.  Her  reason  ac- 
cepted all  this  at  once,  but  her  conscience  was  some 
time  in  becoming  reconciled,  and  the  habit  of  repres- 
sion, persisted  in  so  many  years,  was  hard  to  change. 
Heart-break  for  the  man  she  had  loved  and  lost  (she 
still  idealized  him  and  blamed  herself  for  any  uncon- 
ventional occurrences),  headache,  physical  weakness, 
financial  worries  and  discouragement  at  the  gloomy  out- 
look made  a  repetition  of  advice,  encouragement,  and 
suggestion  necessary  for  some  months.  Although,  on 
resuming   auto-erotism   and   relinquishing   worry,   im- 


40  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

provement  was  immediate,  it  was  only  up  to  a  certain 
point. 

Then  inquiry  was  made  as  to  her  present  frequency 
of  indulging  in  auto-erotism  and  the  method  employed. 
It  was  learned  that  she  used  an  object  about  one-half 
inch  in  diameter  and  four  inches  long,  without  pre- 
liminary excitation  of  the  breasts  or  clitoris,  about  once 
a  week.  At  times  she  failed  to  get  complete  relief, 
and  was  unable  to  sleep.  She  was  now  advised  to  use 
a  somewhat  larger  and  longer  object,  after  some  pre- 
liminary excitation,  and  to  lessen  the  intervals  for  a 
time,  at  least.  Improvement  was  rapid  from  now  on. 
She  became  gay  and  confident,  headaches  disappeared, 
and  she  felt  that  she  should  entirely  recover.  The  only 
drawback  was  the  impossibility  of  ridding  herself  of 
the  feelings  of  shame  at  allowing  the  young  man  to 
take  liberties  with  her.  There  was,  of  course,  psycho- 
analysis in  this  case,  though  not  in  a  strictly  Freudian 
sense.  Her  history  was  not  all  told  at  once,  and  some 
things  were  remembered  from  time  to  time  which  had 
been  long  forgotten,  but  the  essentials  of  her  sexual 
play  with  her  brother  and  her  auto-erotic  habits  and 
much  more  were  told  at  the  first  interview,  which  was 
like  any  ordinary  conversation.  There  was  no  hyp- 
nosis, head  pressure,  semi-recumbent  posture,  semi- 
lighted  room,  nor  any  kind  of  sleight  of  hand  about  it. 

The  facts  in  regard  to  the  last  young  man,  which 
were  in  her  mind  constantly,  came  slowest  and  hardest, 
but  these  experiences  never  had  been  in  the  unconscious, 
nor  had  the  detailed  sexual  experiences  of  early  child- 
hood been  ever,  for  any  length  of  time,  crowded  from 
consciousness  or  forgotten.  The  dangers  she  had  been 
through  were  not  minimized  by  the  physician,  but  she 
was  told  to  be  thankful  that  nothing  worse  had  hap- 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        41 

pened,  and  to  look  at  her  experiences  with  the  young 
man  as  an  education  and  a  warning  for  the  future. 
She  was  told  not  to  blame  herself  too  much,  as  her  mo- 
tives were  entirely  innocent,  to  let  some  of  the  blame, 
if  blame  there  was,  attach  to  the  young  man,  whose 
conduct  was  certainly  worthy  of  censure.  This  man, 
married  and  unavailable,  was  gradually  lowered  to  the 
estate  of  an  ordinary  human  being  by  her  adviser,  and 
she  was  led  to  think  that  there  were  many  estimable 
men  yet  unattached,  and  perhaps  there  was  one  for 
her.  At  any  rate,  she  could  be  useful,  happy,  and 
self-respecting  if  she  had  to  journey  alone.  Dreams 
were  invoked,  and  though  they  revealed  nothing  which 
she  had  not  told  already,  they  confirmed  much  of  this 
and  showed  that  in  sleep  she  was  now  living  over  her 
childhood  sex  life  and  her  experiences  with  the  young 
man,  and  that  she  was  reconciling  her  past  sex  life  and 
ideals  with  the  present  hard  facts  of  existence,  so  that, 
from  the  ruins,  a  new  personality,  emblemed  by  the 
"  rose  red-streaked,  then  all  white,"  referred  to  later, 
was  rising,  like  Phoenix,  from  the  ashes. 

DREAMS 

I.  She  dreamed  that  the  wife  of  the  young  man  (who 
had  been  so  intimate  and  so  indiscreet  with  her)  came 
to  see  her.  She  at  first  liked  her  very  much,  then  the 
wife's  face  changed  to  a  face  recently  seen,  and  now 
she  did  not  like  it,  and  she  said  to  the  wife,  "  I  do  not 
see  why  he  chose  you  instead  of  me." 

II.  Dreamed  she  (the  young  man's  wife)  wrote  a 
friendly  letter  to  the  dreamer. 

III.  Dreamed  that  the  young  man  was  here  and 
very  fricndl3\  She,  the  dreamer,  asked  him  if  he  was 
married.     He  said,  "  Yes,  but  very  unhappy." 


4«  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

IV.  Dreamed  she  saw  the  wife's  picture.  At  first 
liked  and  then  did  not. 

V.  Dreamed  of  the  wife  as  having  dark  hair  and  eyes 
like  her  own. 

VI.  Dreamed  that  she  and  Mr.  C,  a  recent  acquaint- 
ance, were  sitting  on  the  floor,  he  kissed  her  and  she 
was  indignant,  but  paid  little  attention,  as  she  thought 
that  perhaps  he  did  not  intend  any  wrong.  Mr.  X.,  a 
friend  and  clergyman,  came  into  the  room,  and  now 
Mr.  C.  was  in  the  next  room  with  Mrs.  X.  and  Mr. 
C.  said  to  Mrs.  X.,  referring  to  some  remark  of  the 
dreamer,  "  She  understands  me  and  that  is  satisfactory 
but  not  real  comfortable."  A  friend  from  near  her 
home  came  in  and  introduced  her  husband,  but  he  ig- 
nored her.  At  the  last  remark  of  Mr.  C,  she  laughed 
uproariously  and  was  greatly  amused  in  her  dream. 
Mr.  C.  in  many  ways  reminds  her  of  the  young  man 
previously  spoken  of. 

VII.  She  was  sitting  on  a  veranda,  with  a  dog,  of 
which  she  is  fond.  She  teased  him  and  he  started  away. 
She  whistled  and  called  him  back,  just  to  continue 
teasing  him.  The  dog  appeared  to  know  this,  bit  her 
on  the  chin  and  part  of  his  jaw  seemed  to  be  in  her 
mouth.  She  woke,  much  frightened,  and  having  a 
strange  sensation.  In  the  dream  the  bite  did  not  seem 
to  hurt  her  much,  but  it  was  accompanied  by  a  most 
uncomfortable  sensation. 

Note.  If  we  substitute  in  this  dream  the  young  man 
for  the  dog  and  a  rather  common  post-nuptial  kiss  for 
the  bite,  the  translation  of  this  dream  will  be  easy. 

VIII.  She  dreamed  that  she  was  at  Mr.  X.'s.  She 
put  her  foot  on  Mr.  C.'s  foot,  and  he  said,  "  Is  that  as 
near  to  affection  as  you  ever  come?  "  In  relating  this 
dream  she  recalled  that  the  young  man  had  put  his  foot 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        43 

on  hers  often  in  a  similar  way,  and  she  here  recognizes 
Mr.  C.  as  a  substitute  for  the  young  man. 

IX.  She  dreamed  that  she,  a  little  girl  in  short 
dresses,  was  in  a  strange  house  with  some  woman,  per- 
haps her  mother.  Of  a  sudden  two  kittens  jumped 
under  her  skirts  and  frightened  her  terribly.  The 
brother  (now  dead)  entered  the  room.  When  this 
dream  is  discussed  she  remembers  seeing  a  cat  the  day 
of  the  dream.  One  should  refer  to  the  episode  in  her 
sex  history,  related  long  before  this  dream,  in  which 
this  brother,  seven,  and  she,  four,  were  left  at  home 
alone  together.  They  undressed  and  played  they  were 
animals. 

X.  She  dreamed  that  she  and  this  brother  were  mar- 
ried and  that  she  had  sexual  relations  with  him.  Vide 
sex  history.  As  a  child  she  had  played  at  husband  and 
wife  with  this  brother,  and  they  had  played  at  inter- 
course. 

XL  She  dreamed  she  was  beside  a  barn  near  her 
old  home,  gathering  beautiful  roses,  some  being  white, 
and  one  beautiful  white  rose  had  red  lines  in  it.  There 
were  a  great  many  girls  in  the  barn,  who  had  no  right 
there,  she  thought.  There  seemed  to  be  something 
underhanded  about  it.  She  saw  more  girls  through  a 
window.  The  facts  were  that  she  had  seen  roses  near 
this  barn,  as  a  child,  on  her  way  to  school.  She  al- 
ways had  been  afraid  to  pass  this  barn,  thought  that  a 
cat  had  been  killed  there.  She  also  had  seen  animals 
copulate  there.  The  day  before  this  dream,  she  had 
been  telling  a  story,  "  Quality,  not  Quantity,"  in  which 
a  white  rose  figured  as  an  emblem  of  purity. 

XII.  She  dreamed  again  of  flowers  of  different  kinds 
and  colors.  The  final  central  figure  emerging  from  all 
the  rest  was  a  beautiful  white  rose. 


44.  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

XIII.  She  dreamed  of  meeting  and  having  a  talk 
with  a  former  Sunday  school  teacher.  While  she  was 
with  this  teacher,  the  brother  referred  to  came  into  the 
room.  It  will  be  recalled  that  when  she  was  four  or 
five  years  old  this  brother,  using  this  Sunday  school 
teacher  and  her  husband  as  illustrations,  explained  the 
advent  of  babies  into  this  world,  and  that  later  she  was 
much  shocked  to  have  been  told  this. 

Few  further  comments  on  these  dreams  are  neces- 
sary if  the  sex  history  of  this  patient  is  carefully  read, 
her  affair  with  the  young  man  is  kept  in  mind  and  her 
conversations  with  the  physician,  who  is  trying  to  help 
her  outgrow  her  love  for  this  young  man  and  to  make 
her  see  herself  a  self-respecting  and  normal  human 
being,  are  taken  account  of.  After  she  became  able  to 
control  her  thoughts  of  this  young  man,  particularly 
those  of  a  sexual  nature,  it  will  be  seen  that,  for  a  time, 
she  got  relief  or  satisfaction  in  her  dreams  of  him 
under  different  disguises,  if  one  wishes  a  Freudian  in- 
terpretation. Then  the  childhood  episodes,  so  long 
her  bete  noir,  were  worked  over,  sometimes  with  accom- 
panying erotic  feelings  and  sometimes  without. 

I  assume  that  these  early  experiences  were  being 
assimilated  by  her  new-found  personality  and  finally 
disposed  of,  sloughed  off,  as  it  were.  Then,  as  a  re- 
sult of  her  own  reasoning  and  my  words  of  comfort, 
she  first  began  to  realize  herself  in  dreams  what  she 
had  always  longed  to  be,  pure  and  wholesome.  The 
red-streaked  rose  was  her  former  self,  a  white  one  in 
dream  XI.  was  her  present  self,  other  white  ones  were 
other  girls  who  had  had  similar  experiences  but  who 
were  really  In  intention  as  pure  as  she.  The  consum- 
mation occurs  in  dream  XII.  when  she,  as  the  white 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        45 

rose,  emerges  from  the  many  colored  flowers.  This 
period  of  definite  dreams  ended  at  the  time  when  she 
was  clearly  on  the  high  road  to  complete  recovery.  It 
is  plain  that  dreams  such  as  these  are  the  via  regia 
of  the  conscious  or  unconscious  mind  but  not,  as  Freud 
would  encourage  us  to  believe,  ante  rem  and  necessary 
adjuncts  in  probing  a  personality,  but  in  this  case  at 
least  they  are  post  rem  and  constitute  unmistakable 
proof  of  the  correctness  of  the  patient's  intimate  life 
history,  already  detailed  to  the  physician  from  her 
conscious  mind,  sans  cumbersome  psycho-analytic  de- 
vices. That  esoteric  training  which  the  ordinary  physi- 
cian is  said  to  lack  and  which,  according  to  strict 
Freudians,  he  is  unable  to  acquire,  is  entirely  unneces- 
sary in  this  instance. 


CHAPTER  II 
PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY 


PART    II 


In  the  Journal  of  Abnormal  Psychology  for  Au- 
gust, 1916,  Dr.  Burrow  further  remarks  concerning  our 
wrong  educational  system.  He  criticizes  particularly 
didactic  methods  of  instruction  and  the  almost  total 
absence  of  training  on  the  affective  side,  thus  leaving 
no  outlet  for  the  emotions.  So  much  we  can  heartily 
agree  with,  but  his  conclusion  that  this  lack  of  affec- 
tive development  has  led  to  regressive  tendencies  in 
which  auto-erotic  pursuits  have  been  exalted  and  that 
there  has  resulted  a  general  over-estimation  of  every- 
thing sexual  is  not  in  consonance  with  my  findings, 
though  a  surface  analysis  might  lead  to  this  conclu- 
sion. It  is  quite  evident  that,  whether  there  is  repres- 
sion of  sex  from  fear  induced  by  traditional  teaching 
regarding  the  dire  results  to  psyche  and  soma  of  any 
sex  expression  before  marriage  or  whether  there  are 
attempts  at  sublimation,  still  all  sexuality,  from  puberty 
on,  is  neither  repressed  nor  sublimed ;  else  we  should 
have  entire  disappearance  of  the  impulse  to  marriage 
and  propagation  in  many  people  where  this  impulse 
is  still  a  fact.  If  then  the  sex  instinct  is  present  in 
some  degree,  regardless  of  teaching  or  aspiration,  it 
is  again  evident  that,  since  the  spermatozoa  and  the 
ova  are  continuously  coming  to  maturity  in  the  body 

and  libido  is  constantly  being  secreted  by  the  affective 

46 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        47 

mind,  repression  will  necessitate  a  cumulative  action  of 
these  elements  and  there  will  be  apparent  undue  con- 
sideration given  to  the  sexual  by  the  individual. 

Again,  the  fear,  almost  universal,  of  evil  consequences 
of  lapses  in  repression  will  cause  a  constant  dwelling 
on  these  matters  and  thus  make  it  seem  that  the  person 
gives  more  than  proper  place  to  the  sexual.  That  this 
is  not  really  so  can  readily  be  shown  by  following  a 
sufficient  number  of  cases  after  a  sufficient  elucidation 
of  these  matters  has  been  given  to  dispel  the  fears 
which,  as  Dr.  Burrow  says,  and  I  agree,  are  invariably 
the  basis  of  the  neurosis,  and  when  enough  knowledge 
of  nature  has  been  obtained  to  enable  the  individual 
to  dispense  with  prolonged  and  desperate  attempts  at 
repression.  I  propose  to  submit  a  case  in  illustration, 
but  first  let  me  suggest  a  reason,  which  no  one  seems 
to  have  given,  for  the  oversight  or  neglect  of  the 
proper  education  of  the  emotional  life  of  the  child  to 
which  Dr.  Burrow  has  called  attention.  Catering  to, 
or  education  of,  the  emotions  necessitates  the  psychic 
enjoyment  or  phj^sical  pleasure  of  the  individual.  In- 
terest in  music,  painting,  the  dance,  or  sex  expression 
all  involve  emotional  enjoyment;  but  the  ancient  ultra- 
idealism  conceived  all  emotional  or  sensational  enjoy- 
ment as  being  wrong,  and  all  sex  expression  unneces- 
sary and  a  vice  or  crime,  even  the  necessary  expres- 
sion for  procreation  was  considered  a  low  and  an  un- 
necessary concession  to  nature  by  a  clergy  directly 
descended,  though  it  seems  paradoxical,  from  those 
to  whom  inspiration  dictated  to  "  grow  and  multiply 
in  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  givcth  thee."  Mor- 
tification of  the  flesh,  sackcloth  and  ashes,  flagellation, 
the  car  of  Juggernaut,  fasting,  and  a  long  face  were 
means  to  the  highest  ideals;  while  asceticism  indicated 


48  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

strength,  purity,  and  godliness.  Though  these  ideals 
long  have  been  done  away  with  among  sensible  people, 
these  ideas  have  such  root  in  human  consciousness  that 
they  subconsciously  dominate  our  philosophical,  psy- 
chological, religious,  ethical,  and  educational  systems 
toda3\  In  fact,  the  revulsion  of  feeling  which  turned 
much  enlightened  humanity  from  this  ultra-idealism, 
stifling  to  breadth  and  happiness,  to  a  crass  material- 
ism, Hedonistic  enough,  to  be  sure,  but  destitute  of 
many  of  the  best  human  ideals,  was  but  the  persistency 
and  harmfulness  of  these  traditions.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  modern  pragmatism  will  mitigate  the  evils  of  these 
two  extremes. 

Among  the  mentally  well  oriented,  as  well  as  among 
those  alienated,  things  are  not  always  what  they  seem. 
The  minds  of  religious  enthusiasts  are  often  seething 
cauldrons  of  erotic  fancies.  The  supercilious,  legally 
wedded  woman,  horrified  at  infractions  of  the  conven- 
tions, will  often  not  hesitate  to  procure  an  abortion, 
while  what  the  world  calls  an  immoral  woman  often  has 
higher  ideals  and  suffers  more  in  striving  for  them. 
Striving  for  unattainable  ideals  or  non-recognition  of 
inexorable  instincts,  as  one  chooses  to  put  it,  have 
been  the  undoing  of  many  of  the  straightest  men  and 
most  virtuous  women.  The  following  case  so  well  il- 
lustrates cause  and  effect,  the  danger  of  too  high  ideals 
or  non-recognition  of  nature,  the  penalty  of  suppres- 
sion of  emotional  life  and  of  sex  ignorance,  and  the 
points  under  consideration  of  repression  and  supposed 
regression,  and  so  profoundly  appeals  to  our  admira- 
tion and  sympathy  that  I  shall  quote  fully  from  my 
notes  and  endeavor  to  draw  some  legitimate  conclu- 
rions  from  the  story,  compared  to  which  the  modern 
problem-novel,    in    its    attempts    at    realism,    hardly 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        49 

scratches  the  veneer  of  our  society.  Sex  literature  and 
modern  fiction  are  rife  with  abstractions  calculated  to 
set  us  thinking,  but  entirely  useless  when  we  seek  for 
remedies.  The  concrete  psychic  facts  and  physical  re- 
sults are  not  only  more  profoundly  absorbing,  but  the 
only  safe  criterion  of  a  rational  therapy.  The  one 
whose  history  is  given  is  a  resident  of  a  distant  state, 
a  widow  of  forty-eight  years,  refined,  liberally  edu- 
cated, beautiful,  the  devoted  mother  of  three  children. 
Her  married  experience  was  most  happy,  her  thoughts 
and  aspirations  for  herself  and  her  children  always 
have  been  of  the  highest,  her  conduct  was,  to  a  certain 
point,  unexceptionable. 

How  comes  the  nadir  of  her  present  from  the  zenith 
of  her  past?  for  she  finds  herself  pregnant  and  bears 
an  illegitimate  child.  The  paradox,  if  it  be  one,  though 
I  prefer  to  call  it  a  legitimate  sequence  of  events  and 
no  serious  detraction  from  her  virtue,  I  propose  to  ex- 
plain from  the  intimate  facts  of  her  inner  life. 

When  about  eight  years  of  age,  having  no  previous 
knowledge  or  thought  of  sex,  she  accidentally  saw  a 
man  urinating.  She  was  ashamed  and  disgusted  and 
excited,  though  the  excitement  was  not  known  to  be 
sexual,  by  this  sight  of  the  male  genitals.  Two  years 
later,  walking  with  a  woman  companion,  they  suddenly 
came  upon  a  man  in  an  alley  way,  masturbating.  She 
had  no  idea  then  or  for  many  years  later  what  the  man 
was  doing,  but  was  much  frightened  and  shocked  at  this 
sight.  A  vivid  picture  remained,  of  his  actions  and 
of  the  distended  organ  and  of  the  expression  of  pleas- 
ure on  his  countenance.  Instinctively  she  thought  that 
what  he  was  doing  was  wrong  and  loathsome  and  won- 
dered why  he  was  doing  it.  There  was  often  a  recur- 
rence of  vivid  mental  pictures  of  these  two  incidents, 


50  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

combined  always  with  a  feeling  of  horror  and  disgust 
at  herself  for  thinking  of  them.  There  were  no  erotic 
feelings  accompanying  these  mental  pictures  until  she 
learned,  about  the  time  of  her  marriage,  what  the  sec- 
ond man  was  doing.  Subsequently  erotic  feelings  ac- 
companied these  mental  pictures  and  each  time  they  re- 
curred she  felt  as  if  she  had  been  violated  by  this  second 
man.  On  several  other  occasions  she  accidentally  ob- 
served men  urinating,  and  on  three  other  occasions 
saw  men  masturbating.  Once  she  saw  a  man,  appar- 
ently a  degenerate,  walking  along  the  street  masturba- 
ting without  being  exposed.  Some  years  after  her  hus- 
band's death,  a  man  sitting  opposite  her  in  a  railway 
car,  kept  looking  at  her.  He  was  evidently  greatly 
excited  and  was  masturbating  furiously.  She  could  not 
change  her  seat  without  attracting  attention.  The  old 
horror  and  disgust  returned  at  this  sight  and  later  there 
were  intense  erotic  feelings  on  remembering  it.  Just 
before  this  incident  she  had  been  suffering  intensely  from 
erotic  feelings  and  had  been  making  every  effort  to  re- 
pel the  advances  of  a  man  of  whom  she  was  fond  and 
who  later  was  the  cause  of  her  undoing. 

After  her  life  story  had  been  given  to  the  physician 
and  all  these  matters  had  been  explained,  she  saw  a  man 
sitting  in  a  grove  masturbating.  Aside  from  a  slight 
feeling  of  shock  and  disgust,  she  had  no  disturbance 
from  this  incident. 

From  about  the  time  of  her  marriage  she  had  a  feel- 
ing of  curiosity  and  repulsion  in  regard  to  male  genitals. 
She  told  her  husband  of  this,  and  he  was  careful  not 
to  expose  himself  before  her.  If  her  husband  or  one  of 
her  boys  or  a  male  guest  went  to  the  bathroom  to 
urinate,  she  had  a  feeling  of  disgust  and  a  strong  erotic 
feeling.     At  the  age  of  seventeen,  she  awoke  one  night 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        51 

having  violent  sensations  immediately  culminating  in 
an  orgasm.  Immediately  she  had  a  feeling  of  shame, 
disgust,  terror,  and  utter  unworthiness.  Similar  oc- 
currences resulted  in  similar  feelings,  and  she  soon  be- 
gan to  have  erotic  feelings  when  awake,  and  soon 
learned  their  meaning  and  began  to  masturbate  occa- 
sionally when  the  feelings  were  too  intense  to  be  con- 
trolled. On  every  occasion  there  was  the  greatest  re- 
pugnance and  fear  of  physical  and  moral  calamity. 
About  this  time  she  read  Pierce's  quack  literature,  heard 
risque  stories  from  a  girl,  read  Eve's  Daughters  by 
Marion  Harland,  and  Know  Thyself,  all  of  which  made 
her  redouble  her  efforts  to  abandon  masturbation,  and 
she  was  successful  at  about  the  time  of  her  engagement, 
one  and  one-half  years  before  her  marriage.  Both  she 
and  her  fiance  had  strong  erotic  excitement  during  their 
engagement,  but  neither  for  a  moment  thought  of  yield- 
ing to  these  feelings. 

After  her  marriage,  on  account  of  an  imperforate 
hymen  or  a  disproportion  in  the  size  of  the  organs, 
complete  intercourse  was  impossible  for  a  period  of 
three  months ;  but  they  did  not  know  enough  to  con- 
sult a  physician.  The  husband  attained  an  orgasm 
frequently  from  contact,  and  on  these  occasions  she 
had  extreme  excitement  and  a  great  deal  of  pain,  but 
no  orgasm.  Undoubtedly  the  patience  and  considerate- 
ness  of  the  husband  prevented  serious  nervous  collapse 
at  this  time.  Shortly  after  three  months,  she  became 
pregnant  and  for  about  two  weeks  they  had  intercourse 
daily  with  complete  satisfaction  to  both.  Then,  fol- 
lowing the  dictates  of  Tokology,  intercourse  was  of 
rare  occurrence  during  pregnancy  and  there  was  none 
for  two  months  after  confinement.  Then,  as  she  was 
delicate  and  nervous,  to  avoid  an  early  repetition  of 


52  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

pregnancy  they  delayed  intercourse  two  weeks  after 
each  menstruation  and  then  indulged  three  or  four 
times  a  night  for  five  nights.  Occasional  relief  was 
had  at  other  times  by  pressure  of  the  penis  against 
the  clitoris  until  both  had  an  orgasm.  Rarely  she 
masturbated  him. 

Eight  years  after  her  marriage  the  husband  became 
ill  from  a  double  valvular  heart  lesion.  They  were  told 
that  he  must  have  no  excitement,  and  they  interpreted 
this  to  include  sexual  excitement.  They  began  to  oc- 
cupy separate  rooms,  and  she  made  eA'ery  effort  to  con- 
ceal any  erotic  feelings.  After  six  months  of  total 
abstinence,  they  began  to  have  intercourse  on  the  rarest 
occasions,  though  both  he  and  she  suffered  extremely 
from  deprivation  for  the  few  years  that  her  husband 
lived.  Both  were  very  nervous,  but  perfectly  har- 
monious. She  had  almost  constant  desire,  but  con- 
cealed it  from  him  and  despised  herself  for  having  such 
feelings  when  her  husband  was  ill.  When  he  was  greatly 
excited  she  avoided  intercourse  by  telling  him  that  she 
was  tired  or  ill  or  did  not  want  it.  She  had  occasional 
voluptuous  dreams  but  never  masturbated  during  her 
married  life. 

Not  long  after  his  death,  sexual  feelings  returned  and 
kept  increasing  in  frequency,  and  she  had  to  resort  to 
masturbation  occasionally,  but  always  with  the  great- 
est shame  and  remorse.  She  met  a  man  older  than 
she,  with  whom  she  became  friendly,  and  he  tried  to 
help  her  loneliness  and,  it  might  be  said,  paid  her  some 
little  attention.  After  a  time,  he  told  her  abruptly 
that  he  enjoyed  their  friendship  but  that  he  did  not 
care  enough  in  the  right  way  for  her  or  any  woman 
to  marry.  During  this  friendship,  there  was  no  in- 
crease in  erotic  excitement.     The  friendship  continued 


PSYCHO  ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        53 

after  this  declaration,  but  she  became  very  lonely  and, 
to  prevent  herself  from  brooding,  and  to  do  some  good 
in  the  world  she  entertained,  perfectly  conventionally, 
another  man  who  promptly  fell  in  love  with  her,  and 
after  a  time  they  were  engaged. 

All  her  life,  as  a  result  of  her  mother's  criticisms, 
she  had  felt  that  she  was  stupid,  unattractive,  and  that 
no  one  cared  for  her.  Though  this  feeling  had  disap- 
peared to  some  extent  during  her  married  life,  it  had 
reappeared  in  full  force  after  the  declaration  of  the 
friend  mentioned  above.  This  second  man's  evident 
love  and  respect  for  her  induced  a  strong  emotional 
state.  After  a  time  he  said  that,  as  they  were  engaged 
and  both  suffering,  intercourse  was  all  right  and  he 
tried  to  induce  her  to  think  as  he  did.  She  knew  bet- 
ter and  resisted  any  advances  of  this  nature,  though 
she  was  so  situated  that  she  could  not  escape  him  and 
had  to  submit  to  many  lover-like  attentions  all  calcu- 
lated to  excite  her  erotic  nature.  Finally,  as  much  out 
of  sympathy  for  him  and  his  sufferings  as  from  the 
stress  of  great  desire,  she  consented  to  a  relation  which, 
though  external  contact  only,  and  never  complete  in- 
tercourse, finally  resulted  in  her  pregnancy.  Mutual 
orgasms  were  obtained  as  the  result  of  contact  from 
time  to  time.  On  each  and  every  occasion,  she  resisted 
to  the  best  of  her  ability,  his  attempts  at  excitation, 
but  finally  succumbed  in  some  instances.  He  also  tried 
to  break  off  these  relations,  and  both,  as  a  prophylactic 
to  their  intense  desires  when  together,  tried  masturba- 
tion before  their  meetings.  Neither  thought  there  was 
any  danger  of  concey)tion,  and  after  her  condition  was 
discovered,  no  further  relations  were  had. 

Circumstances  were  such  that  they  could  not  marry. 
He  offered  repeatedly  to  marry  her,  but  now  insisted 


54i  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

that  she  go  away  with  him  and  leave  her  children. 
She  felt  that  she  could  not  sacrifice  them,  and  besides 
now  she  saw  a  side  of  his  character  altogether  new  to 
her.  He  blamed  her,  insisted  that  she  had  ruined  his 
career,  and  left  her  to  take  all  initiative  and  responsi- 
bility incident  to  her  condition.  She  took  medicine,  at 
his  suggestion,  to  bring  on  the  menses,  and  tried,  on 
her  own  account,  by  attaining  the  orgasm  several  times, 
to  restore  her  monthly  sicknesses. 

The  other  details  of  this  history  are  unessential. 
Always  nervous  and  having  had  several  severe  attacks 
of  depression,  she  now  had  the  worst  one  of  all.  She 
procured  a  loaded  revolver,  which  she  attempted  sev- 
eral times  to  use,  but  at  the  last  moment  her  courage 
failed  her.  She  now  fell  into  my  hands  and  my  treat- 
ment was  quite  simple.  After  learning  the  history, 
which  took  two  or  three  days,  I  admired  and  agreed 
with  her  ethical  notions,  but  allowed  somewhat  for  her 
ignorance  of  sex  matters  and  for  her  temptations  and 
provocations.  I  told  her  that,  under  the  circum- 
stances, she  could  have,  many  times  in  her  life,  obtained 
auto-erotic  relief,  and  could  do  so  still,  with  perfect 
justification,  from  any  sane,  biological,  ethical,  or  re- 
ligious code.  I  respected  her  more  than  I  did  many 
ostensibly  virtuous  married  ladies,  and  I  told  her  so. 
I  sympathized  with  her  deeply  and  let  her  know  it. 
My  wife  treated  her  as  she  would  a  sister.  The  morbid 
ideas  in  regard  to  male  sex  organs,  I  removed  in  about 
twenty  minutes,  according  to  her  statement.  I  simply 
took  some  anatomical  charts  and  explained  to  her  in 
a  general  way  the  functions,  relations,  and  states  of 
the  male  and  female  generative  organs  just  as  I  might 
have  instructed  her  in  astronomical,  botanical,  or  in 
physiological  facts  and  I  showed  her  the  natural  psy- 


PSYCHO-ANALYSIS  AND  SOCIETY        55 

chological  sequence  between  the  several  incidents  and 
the  morbid  ideas,  assuring  her  that,  given  the  same 
premises,  such  ideas  were  as  likely  to  come  to  me  or  any 
one  else  as  to  her.  She  gave  up  ideas  of  the  revolver 
and  took  up  her  life  again  with  a  measure  of  self- 
respect  and  a  determination  to  live  in  the  present  and 
in  prospect  rather  than  in  retrospect. 

In  this  case,  added  to  the  ordinary  neglect  of  affec- 
tive development  in  early  years,  there  had  been  her 
mother's  constant  criticisms  which  tended  to  inhibit  all 
self-expression.  Utter  lack  of  sex  knowledge  and  un- 
fortunate incidents  and  situations  did  the  rest.  After 
her  restoration  to  health,  her  erotic  feelings  though 
recurring  at  intervals  were  less  frequent  and  no 
stronger  than  in  the  ordinary  married  or  unmarried 
woman  of  her  age  and  temperament.  Her  former  sex- 
ual preoccupation  entirely  disappeared.  Of  course 
this  isolated  case  would  prove  little  except  as  being 
a  sample  of  scores  of  young,  middle-aged,  and  elderly 
persons  of  both  sexes  whom  I  could  cite. 

Her  struggles  toward  continence  remind  us  of  sim- 
ilar attempts  to  preserve  what  was  thought  to  be  a  state 
of  personal  purity  by  numerous  men  and  women  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  Undoubtedly,  if  the  minutiae  of  their  pri- 
vate lives  were  all  known,  we  should  find  that  all,  as  we 
know  was  the  case  with  many  of  them,  were  forced  to 
recognize  nature  or  fell  below  their  ideals  at  times 
much  as  she  did.  Her  point  of  view  and  struggle  for 
purity  are  shown  in  her  horror  at  voluptuous  dreams, 
in  the  fierce  struggle  against  auto-erotism,  in  her  self- 
control  during  her  husband's  sickness,  and  in  the  long 
fight  before  she  succumbed  to  the  insidious  male  when 
lonely,  striving  to  repress  sex,  at  the  acme  of  her  sex- 
ual life,  he  reinforced  propinquity  and  sympathy  with 


56  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

violent  and  sophistical  protestations  of  love  and  desire. 
The  fact  that  she  was  desirable  to  a  man  for  whom 
she  at  first  had  great  admiration  and  after  she  had  be- 
gun to  accept  finally  her  mother's  statements  as  to  her 
unattractiveness  and  undesirableness,  helped  much  in 
her  undoing. 

The  futility  and  unwisdom  of  one  of  this  lady's  nature 
attempting  to  forego  all  sex  expression  seem  obvious. 
But  what  shall  we  advise?  No  one,  unless  still  sub- 
servient to  tradition,  will  advise  promiscuity.  Advice 
to  a  woman  to  marry  is  often  null  and  void.  When,  as 
is  often  the  case,  more  than  nocturnal  involuntary  sex 
expression  is  needed  to  preserve  health  and  sanity  and 
conventional  purity,  there  is  no  alternative,  I  have 
many  times  unblushingly,  as  in  this  case,  advised  tem- 
perate auto-erotism  as  safe  and  sane  and  without  vio- 
lence to  self-respect  or  sane  ethics.  This  has  done 
away  with  omnipresent  desire,  which  is  the  token  of  the 
cumulative  action  of  the  sex  instinct  in  the  rigidly 
continent,  who  are  still  virile.  It  has  improved  physi- 
cal health  and  restored  nervous  balance  and  quietude. 
The  recipients  of  this  advice  are  numerous,  and  they 
grace  the  best  firesides,  schools,  and  churches  in  puri- 
tanical New  England,  and  the  writer  is  still  persona 
grata  to  these  people,  many  of  whom  are  not  only 
patients  but  respected  friends.  Those  of  highest  ideals 
have  natures  often  as  ardent  as  those  of  the  lowest. 
Where  ideals  are  low,  strong  or  uncontrollable  sex 
emotion  finds  expression  in  promiscuity ;  while  those 
possessing  high  ideals  express  such  sex  emotion  as  is 
difficult  or  impossible  of  control  auto-erotically,  con- 
ceiving this  safer  for  the  individual,  less  injurious  to 
society,  and  more  ethical. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  CASE  OF  N- 


PART    I.    HISTOEY    AND    THERAPY 

We  present  the  following  case,  believing  that  it  will 
prove  of  considerable  interest  to  both  pro-  and  anti- 
Freudians.  The  physician  began  the  study  of  the 
neuroses  and  their  relations  to  sex  anomalies  at  about 
the  time  Bruer  and  Freud  made  their  first  investiga- 
tions of  hysteria  and  has  continued  to  study  and  treat 
neurotic  and  mental  cases   to   the  present  time.      The 

patient,  N ,  is  a  college  graduate,  has  a  university 

degree,  and  is  at  present  a  college  professor.  In  the 
opinion  of  the  physician  he  is  a  young  man  singularly 
pure  morally,  of  keen  insight  and  rare  ability.  This 
opinion  of  him  is  shared  by  several  prominent  educa- 
tors. When  the  case  was  brought  to  our  attention  he 
was  twenty-four  years  of  age,  of  rather  retiring  na- 
ture and  studious  habits.  After  graduating  from  col- 
lege and  being  for  some  time  in  the  university,  he  had, 
on  March  17,  1915,  while  working  in  the  library,  a 
sudden,  brief  nervous  attack,  taking  the  form  of  an 
intense  though  very  vague  feeling  of  fear  or  appre- 
hension. He  became  anxious  to  get  to  his  room,  and 
dreaded  going  to  an  informal  college  banquet  scheduled 
for  that  evening,  fearing  that  he  might  become  ill  there 
or  would  be  nervously  disturbed  by  the  large  crowd. 
Two  weeks  later,  while  walking  on  the  street,  he  be- 
came conscious  of  a  trembling  sensation  in  his  limbs 

57 


58  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  felt  a  strong  desire  to  tell  some  one  that  he  was 
ill.  He  considered  going  into  a  drugstore  near  by  to 
get  some  one  to  accompany  him  to  his  room,  but  did 
not,  and  after  arriving  at  the  room  and  lying  down 
a  short  time,  he  felt  perfectly  natural  again,  study- 
ing late  into  the  evening  without  difficulty. 

Three  weeks   after   this   experience,   while   traveling 
on  a  passenger  coach,  bound  for  a  week-end  home  visit, 

N suffered    a   prolonged   attack    of    fear,    which, 

though  for  the  most  part  still  vague  and  undefined, 
before  its  cessation  clearly  involved  a  fear  of  impend- 
ing amnesia  or  other  mental  calamity.  He  felt  some- 
what confused  and,  as  before,  greatly  desired  to  speak 
to  some  one.  At  the  end  of  his  railroad  journey, 
while  waiting  for  a  trolley,  he  considered  telephoning 
a  physician  who  he  knew  would  be  glad  to  take  him  home 
in  an  automobile,  and  bought  numerous  useless  small 
articles  at  a  drugstore  as  a  distraction.  He  also  tried 
reading  to  pass  away  his  time,  but  could  not  get  in- 
terested or  concentrate.  This  attack,  finally  merging 
over  into  a  feeling  merely  of  weakness,  without  fear, 

continued  about  two  hours  after  N arrived  home. 

Returning  to  the  university,  the  next  week  he  became 
gradually  more  apprehensive  about  going  out  to  classes, 
meals,  or  to  any  place  very  far  removed  from  his  room. 
Vague  fears  of  a  possibly  impending  onset  of  confusion 
or  amnesia  became  increasingly  persistent.  Late  in  the 
day,  with  increasing  fatigue,  he  tended  to  become  pes- 
simistic, worrying  over  the  possibility  of  dementia 
praecox,  epilepsy,  or  other  mental  disease.  Synchro- 
nously with  all  these  fears  and  worries,  there  developed 
an  especially  marked  dread  of  solitude. 

After  two  weeks   of  increasing  disturbance,  N • 

decided  to  give  up  his  studies  and  went  home,  suffering 


THE  CASE  OF  N 59 

much  on  the  trip  from  the  symptoms  already  described. 
A  week  later  he  went  out  alone  for  a  walk,  but  suffering 
markedly  from  fear  and  "  loneliness,"  he  returned  after 
having  gone  but  a  short  distance.  Soon  there  was  a 
similar  attack  when  he  was  left  at  home  alone  one  eve- 
ning; and  presently  attacks  were  almost  certain  to 
occur  whenever  he  found  himself  in  solitude  or  isolated 
among  strangers,  as  in  a  railway  station,  church,  pub- 
lic hall,  strange  crowded  street,  and  the  like.  About 
this  time,  the  fear  of  self-injury  was  added  to  the  list, 
and  sharp  knives,  ropes,  water  and  poison  became  taboo. 
The  barber's  chair  was  for  a  time  the  curious  object 
of  one  phobia. 

N 's  sleep  was  irregular,  appetite  poor,  with  more 

or  less  indigestion,  he  lost  weight,  and  found  it  diffi- 
cult to  read  or  study.  A  month's  rest  resulted  in  in- 
creased physical  and  mental  efficiency,  but  there  seemed 
to  be  no  perceptible  improvement  ofHhe  several  phobias ; 
if  anything,  these  tended  to  become  more  and  more 
fixed.  Solitude,  which  invariably  came  to  be  the  occa- 
sion of  any  one  or  all  the  pho"bias,  became  particularly 
intolerable. 

Discouraged  by  two  months  of  unsuccessful  self- 
treatment,  on  August  15th  N consulted  the  physi- 
cian. In  the  first  conversation  he  related  substantially 
the  above  history.  The  physician's  experience  with 
the  neuroses  led  him  at  once  to  a  thorough  investigation 

of  his  patient's  sex  history.     N heartily  cooperated 

in  this  investigation,  for  some  previous  contact  with  the 
Freudian  literature  had  made  it  clear  to  him  from  the 
beginning  that  his  difficulty  was  in  some  way  associated 
with  the  sex  life.  Tlie  sex  history,  as  given  in  the 
physician's  case-book,  reads : 

Sex  history:     The  patient  is  a  male  of  24,  with  brown 


W  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

hair  and  blue  eyes.  As  a  child  he  was  considered  frail 
and  had  indigestion,  apparently  of  nervous  origin,  and  ca- 
tarrh. In  reality  he  seems  to  have  had  little  serious  sick- 
ness and  was  generally  in  good  health.  His  father  is 
living  and  well  at  70;  his  mother  died  at  47,  of  an  obscure 
organic  disease  of  the  nervous  system.  He  has  a  perfectly 
healthy  brotlier  and  sister.  A  sister,  born  about  two  years 
before  the  patient,  died  shortly  after  birth.  At  7  or  8 
years  he  experienced  some  degree  of  pleasure  if  he  urinated 
while  having  an  erection;  he  was  also  conscious  at  times 
of  slight  erotic  sensations  in  the  anal  region.  He  wished 
to  ride  horseback,  but  had  a  great  fear  of  horses.  At  11 
he  had  conscious,  though  vague,  and  very  slight,  local  sex 
manifestations.  There  came  to  be  some  association  be- 
tween the  sight  of  the  rectum  and  sexual  organs  of  horses 
and  his  erections,  which  occurred  frequently  when  he  was 
riding  in  a  carriage.  At  7  or  8  he  once  made  a  series  of 
drawings  of  horses,  making  prominent  the  rectum  and 
droppings.  Severe  criticism  from  his  brother  put  a  check 
on  this  pastime.  Once  more,  however,  at  14,  he  made  a 
similar  set  of  drawings,  which  he  contemplated  in  secret 
with  more  or  less  sexual  enjoyment.  At  15  he  began  to 
have  more  erections  and  emissions;  at  20,  awaking  from  a 
nap  in  a  hammock,  having  a  strong  erection,  he  accidentally 
discovered  masturbation.  Following  this  there  was  marked 
sexual  excitement  and  masturbation  about  once  in  ten  days. 
Later  the  interval  was  reduced  to  a  week,  though  occasion- 
ally the  period  would  be  two  weeks. 

For  five  months  preceding  his  first  nervous  attack,  the 
patient  had  masturbated  two  or  three  times  a  week.  After 
this  attack  sex  excitement  tended  to  diminish,  and  during 
the  three  months  beginning  May  8th  he  masturbated  but 
two  or  three  times.  Emissions,  since  their  first  appearance, 
have  varied  in  frequency  from  three  times  a  week  to  once 
in  two  weeks.  From  the  first  he  was  ashamed  of  mastur- 
bation, and  was  in  constant  fear  of  mental  and  physical 
injury,  especially  fearing  that  it  would  unfit  him  for  mar- 
riage, either  through  direct  impotence  or  through  some 
nervous  complication  which  would  make  marriage  undesir- 
able. He  was  also  greatly  concerned  on  the  ethical  side, 
as  he  considered  masturbation  a  very  serious  moral  trans- 


THE  CASE  OF  N 61 

gression.  He  has  never  indulged  in  nor  contemplated 
promiscuous  sex  relations ;  moral  scruples,  not  fear  of  dis- 
ease, being  the  restraining  influence.  His  sexual  dreams, 
preceding  emissions^  have  nearly  always  been  of  horses, 
the  image  being  of  a  horse's  rectum  in  the  process  of  de- 
fecation. The  stages  of  the  emission  were  synchronous 
with  the  stages  of  defecation.  Since  beginning  to  mastur- 
bate at  20  he  has  usually  had  images  of  girls'  faces  when 
masturbating,  but  at  times  the  image  of  an  emission  as 
above  described  would  displace  the  idea  of  the  opposite  sex. 

Masturbation  was  always  partly  a  psychic  and  partly  a 
physical  act.  Cheap  vaudeville  and  any  literature  relating 
to  sex  always  excited  him  more  or  less  sexually.  He  was 
satisfied  before  consulting  the  physician  that  his  sex  worry 
and  his  neurosis  were  intimately  associated. 

Shortly  after  the  first  conversation,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  patient  had  a  long  redundant  and  narrow  prepuce, 
with  a  tight  restricting  band  about  one  inch  from  the  distal 
extremity.  This  was  so  tight  that  the  glans  was  exposed 
only  with  great  difficulty  when  the  organ  was  flaccid  and 
its  exposure  was  not  possible  during  erection.  This  condi- 
tion was  treated  by  forcible  dilatation  of  the  prepuce,  which 
was  repeated  several  times,  and  shortly  after  all  trouble  dis- 
appeared, the  glans  moving  freely  in  and  out  of  the  prepuce 
whatever  the  state  of  the  organ.  The  restriction,  though 
undoubtedly  at  times  tending  to  aggravate  sexual  excite- 
ment, appears  to  have  had  no  direct  bearing  upon  the 
neurosis. 

The  intimate  connection  of  the  past  sex  worry  and 
the  present  neurosis  was  very  evident  to  the  physician, 
and  the  most  recent  sex  disturbances,  the  masturbation 
worries,  seemed  to  be  the  first  to  treat.  In  many  cases 
these  are  all  that  it  is  necessary  to  treat,  apparently 
being  the  sole  basis  of  the  neurosis.  In  this  case,  how- 
ever, it  seemed  clear  from  the  longstanding  horse-sex 
complex  that  there  was  something  beyond  this  in  child- 
hood experience. 

For  nearly  three  years  N had  been  in  constant 


62  FURTHER  IN\TESTIGATIONS 

fear  of  the  physical  and  mental  results  of  masturba- 
tion, especially  the  mental.  Long  fearing  that  his 
mother's  trouble  had  been  mental,  he  now  felt  that 
hereditary  disposition  coupled  with  his  practice  would 
make  some  direful  result  absolutely  certain.  Self- 
condemnation  of  his  moral  culpability  was  constant  and 
he  had  thoroughly  convinced  himself  that  he  was  prac- 
tically unique  in  being  addicted  to  this  habit.  He 
thought  he  saw,  in  lassitude,  in  indigestion,  in  physical 
weakness,  and  in  indisposition  to  study,  the  beginning 
of  mental  and  physical  ruin.  Directly  preceding  his 
nervous  attack,  his  efforts  at  abandoning  masturbation 
were  redoubled,  but  with  only  partial  success.  For  a 
time  after  the  onset  of  the  neurosis  there  was  more 
frequent  masturbation,  despite  attempts  to  check  it 
and  a  greater  fear  than  ever  of  consequences. 

By  the  aid  of  some  manuscript  which  the  physician 
had  at  hand,  he  was  able  very  quickly  to  give  the  pa- 
tient his  views  on  masturbation,  and  by  quoting  many 
cases  to  give  some  authority  to  them.  The  briefest 
statement  of  the  physician's  point  of  view,  omitting  the 
facts  underlying  them,  which  were  included  in  the 
manuscript,-^  are  here  given,  that  the  reader  may  un- 
derstand the  whole  treatment: 

Masturbation  is  practically  universal,  that  is,  it  is 
practised  for  a  time  by  virtually  every  male  and  by 
nearly  every  female.  It  is  also  practised  by  most  of 
the  lower  animals,  especially  if  the  sexes  be  segregated. 
There  is  uncontrovertible  proof  of  this.  Masturbation 
is  needlessly  worried  over  by  most  young  men  and  by 
many  young  women.  It  is  at  first  a  more  or  less  in- 
stinctive  part   of  the   sexual  development   of   children 

1  This   manuscript   has    recently    appeared    in   book   form.     See 
Robie:  Rational  Sex  Ethics.     Boston,  Badger,  1916. 


THE  CASE  OF  N 63 

and  adolescents,  and  later,  if  marriage  does  not  super- 
vene, it  is,  as  Ellis  says,  the  most  normal  manifestation 
possible  in  abnormal  social  conditions.  Yielding  to 
an  imperious,  all-commanding  instinct,  moderately,  in 
the  safest,  sanest  way,  one  that  does  not  involve  the 
rest  of  society,  but  only  the  individual  himself,  if  the 
motives  are  right,  is  neither  disgraceful  nor  immoral. 
Masturbation  as  an  end  in  itself  may  be  perverse  and 
immoral,  possibly  in  rare  cases  injurious,  but  as  a 
means  to  preserve  health  and  sanity  or  to  prevent  social 
vice,  if  practiced  faut  de  mieux  it  is  none  of  these  things. 
Pre-scientific  ideas  of  the  soul-  and  body-destroying 
power  of  masturbation,  medieval  medical  ideas  of  its 
causing  elipsy,  insanity,  impotence,  et  al.,  are  all  sheer 
nonsense.     This  stand  is  readily  proved. 

The  patient  was  further  advised  to  keep  his  mind 
in  healthy  channels,  to  cultivate  hard  work  and  legiti- 
mate enthusiasms,  to  abandon  forever  as  foolish  all 
worry  over  any  harm  resulting  from  masturbation, 
to  restrain  sex  manifestations  so  far  as  possible  with- 
out great  suffering  or  disturbance,  and  to  marry  early, 
but  only  when  there  should  be  mutual  love  and  con- 
geniality, not  as  a  means  of  sexual  relief,  meantime, 
if  sex  proved  too  strong,  to  masturbate  moderately 
rather  than  to  injure  himself  and  society  by  promiscu- 
ous intercourse.  He  was  advised  never  to  worry  about 
this  more  than  about  other  periodic,  more  or  less  fre- 
quent, demands  of  body  and  mind. 

Good  or  bad,  the  physician's  stand  was  promptly 
recognized  and  the  advice  accepted.  Masturbation  was 
resorted  to  two  or  three  times  a  week  without  fear  of 
consequences,  and  there  was  immediate  and  continued 
improvement. 

The  treatment  was  continued  by  interviews  once  or 


64  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

twice  a  week,  during  which  endeavor  was  made  to  dis- 
cover further  factors  possibly  involved  in  the  neurosis. 
Several  of  the  patient's  older  dreams  were  written  out 
from  memory,  while  those  occurring  from  night  to 
night  were  carefully  preserved  and  studied.  Analysis 
of  the  earlier  dreams  revealed  very  evident  signs  of  the 
masturbation-worry,  but  in  none  of  the  dreams  did 
there  appear  any  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  horse- 
sex  complex,  nor  was  there  any  explanation  of  certain 
attacks  of  diarrhea  and  indigestion  which  seemed 
usually  to  be  conditioned  by  the  prospect  of,  or  par- 
ticipation in,  social  activities.  Neither  was  there  any- 
thing to  explain  sudden  attacks  of  nausea  or  vomiting 
at  meal  time  whenever  certain  unpleasant  family  asso- 
ciations had  been  aroused.  The  chief  function  of  the 
later  dreams  seems  to  have  been  in  indicating  the  prog- 
ress of  the  treatment,  nearly  every  dream  being  in  the 
nature  of  a  "  review  "  of  the  case  to  date,  with  the 
most  urgent  current  fears  and  worries  playing  the 
most  prominent  role.  A  selection  of  the  more  charac- 
teristic dreams,  with  analyses,  is  presented  in  Part  II 
of  this  article. 

The  mystery  and  obscurity  surrounding  his  mother's 

death,  occurring  when  he  was  thirteen,  had  led  N 

to  believe  she  had  been  afflicted  with  a  transmissible 
mental  disease.  His  people  having  always  referred  to 
him  as  "  just  like  his  mother,"  he  easily  argued,  as  we 
have  noted,  that  both  predisposition  and  evil  habit 
would  make  insanity  inevitable.  Still  further  confirm- 
ing these  fears  was  his  alleged  "  queerness  "  as  a  child. 
It  had  also  been  impressed  upon  him  that  ordinary  ca- 
tarrh, or  bad  teeth,  or  "  too  much  religion  "  might 
lead  to  mental  trouble.  He  had  read  somewhere  that 
the  average  period  of  sanity  for  the  masturbator  was 


THE  CASE  OF  N 65 

three  years ;  it  is  significant  that  his  neurosis  developed 
at  about  the  end  of  a  three-year  period.  Suicide  was 
feared  either  as  a  result  of  insanity,  or  because  it 
might  be  resorted  to  in  a  desperate  moment  to  antici- 
pate the  supposedly  certain  mental  breakdown.  The 
traditional  literature  stating  that  masturbators  at 
length  are  generally  driven  to  suicide  contributed  much 
to  this  fear,  as  had  also  a  recent  newspaper  account 
describing  the  spectacular  suicide  of  a  man  who  had 
left  behind  a  note  warning  boys  of  the  "  inevitable 
consequences  of  certain  bad  practices." 

Certain  phobias  peculiar  to  public  places  and  social 
activities  appear  to  have  arisen  in  the  first  instance 
from  the  patient's  habit  of  comparison  of  himself  with 
defectives  and  derelicts,  it  appearing  logical  in  the 
light  of  his  traditional  knowledge  that  most  of  these 
were  brought  to  their  low  estate  by  the  "  certain  bad 
practice."  Again,  he  had  read  with  concern  of  many 
respectable  people  being  found  in  railway  stations  or 
other  public  places  suffering  from  amnesia  or  other 
mental  disturbance.  At  dances  he  had  for  some  time 
feared  there  might  develop  uncontrollable  sex  mani- 
festations. Sex  excitement  induced  by  the  theatre  had 
often  been  followed  by  masturbation.  Some  one  had 
informed  him  that  practically  all  chorus  men  were 
masturbators,  or  otherwise  sexually  abnormal,  and  that 
a  certain  theatrical  manager  was  reputed  to  be  able  to 
identify  a  masturbator  the  moment  he  stepped  into  his 
office.  This  seemed  to  confirm  the  traditional  belief 
that  the  practice  was  easily  betrayed  by  a  character- 
istic whine  of  the  voice,  dullness  of  eye,  or  through  some 
other  facial  or  bodily  characteristic.  At  church,  at 
lectures,  at  public  events  generally  there  had  been  espe- 
cially   unhappy    comparisons    when    attending   with    a 


66  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

young  woman  as  companion,  or  when  there  were  young 
women  present,  for  there,  in  a  mood  of  self-abasement, 

N would  reflect  upon  his  delinquencies,  which  he 

argued  had  long  since  rendered  him  unfit  equally  for 
present  company  and  future  marriage. 

During  a  part   of  one   of  the   masturbation   years, 

N had  occasion  to  travel  much  alone,  and  while 

on  the  train  or  at  hotels  he  was  much  given  to  com- 
paring himself  unfavorably  with  other  travelers.  He 
also  became  sensitive  about  the  isolation  of  traveling 
alone,  fearing  that  perhaps  this  condition  favored  more 
frequent  masturbation ;  and  as  the  habit  continued  very 
persistently  he  came  to  worry  much  about  a  possible 
serious  climax  while  so  far  away  from  home.  On 
earlier  trips  he  customarily  indulged  in  pleasant  day 
dreams  as  he  looked  out  upon  the  landscape,  but  when 
traveling  now  his  reflections  tended  to  degenerate  into 
a  pessimistic  self-condemnatory  state  of  mind.  The 
vibration  of  the  Pullman  cars  at  times  acted  as  a  sex 
stimulant,  and  there  was  consequent  repression  and 
occasional  masturbation.  As  he  went  from  place  to 
place,  each  change  of  scene,  though  welcomed  as  the 
harbinger  of  new  resolves,  actually  became  the  occasion 
of  increased  conflict  in  which  these  resolves  were  destined 
to  early  collapse.  The  tendency  to  hesitate  before 
undeniably  perilous  solitary  jaunts  in  the  mountains 
or  through  forests,  though  perfectly  justifiable,  he  ac- 
credited almost  exclusively  to  his  "  lack  of  nerve  "  re- 
sulting from  masturbation. 

The  investigation  of  the  foregoing  fears  completely 
disposed  of  the  relation  between  them  and  masturba- 
tion. Not  only  were  the  data  collected  hy  the  phvsi- 
cian  useful  in  dispelling  the  fears,  but  an  obvious  and 
irrefutable    argument   came   to   exist   in   the   patient's 


THE  CASE  OF  N 67 

mind,  for  it  was  evident  that,  since  he  had  resumed  occa- 
sional masturbation  without  remorse  or  fear  of  injury 
he  had  constantly  increased  in  weight,  he  was  unques- 
tionably stronger  and  more  fit  physically  than  at  any 
former  time  in  his  life,  he  was  sleeping  better,  his 
appetite  was  improved,  he  was  optimistic  and  ambitious 
for  mental  application,  and  he  had  the  conviction  that 
his  ability  to  concentrate  and  accomplish  was  possibly 
even  greater  than  formerly. 

In  spite  of  all  this  improvement  and  the  entire  ab- 
sence of  masturbation  worries,  however,  the  phobias 
did  not  entirely  subside.  An  onset  of  fear  or  confu- 
sion would  come  on  less  frequently  than  heretofore,  but 
yet  often  enough  to  be  disquieting.  The  influence  of 
childhood  sex  experiences  as  a  factor  in  the  causation 
and  prolongation  of  the  phobias  was  predicted. 

A  more  detailed  account  of  the  remembered  child- 
hood experiences  was  now  obtained,  especially  those 
bearing  on  the  horse-sex  complex,  and  they  are  here 
transcribed  regardless  of  repetition.  The  origin  of 
the  sex  excitement  produced  by  seeing  horses  and  of 
the  sex  dreams  involving  horses  could  not  be  ascer- 
tained at  this  time,  though  the  subject  was  thoroughly 
discussed  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  solution.     As  a  child, 

sex    excitement    occurred    whenever    N watched 

horses  in  the  stable,  on  the  street,  or  when  riding. 
After  puberty  his  sex  dreams  all  involved  horses,  yet  at 
the  same  time,  as  always,  he  was  afraid  of  horses.  He 
was  constantly  fearful  of  the  possibility  of  being  called 
upon  at  home  to  harness  or  to  drive,  and  long  walks 
were  frequently  taken  at  harnessing-time  with  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  avoiding  any  such  possibility.  At 
the  age  of  seven,  as  already  mentioned,  he  made  draw- 
ings of  horses  in  which  the  anal  region  and  feces  were 


68  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

prominent.  His  older  brother  scolded  him  severely  for 
this,  yet  at  fourteen  he  felt  impelled,  though  conscious 
of  wrong-doing,  to  make  similar  more  elaborate  draw- 
ings which  he  contemplated  with  pleasure  in  secret. 
He  was  also  prone  to  draw,  throughout  childhood,  en- 
gines and  cars,  and  to  play  at  building  railroads  and 
running  trains.  A  favorite  play  for  years  was  to  pic- 
ture himself  as  the  engine  and  thus  run  noisily  up  and 
down  the  sidewalk.  It  would  seem  that  his  recently 
developed  fear  of  railroad  trains,  stations,  and  the 
like  might,  in  addition  to  the  reasons  given  in  connec- 
tion with  masturbation,  have  childhood  roots  from  as- 
sociation and  identification  of  the  horse,  which  was  to 
him  a  means  of  locomotion,  an  object  of  fear,  and  a 
strong  sex  stimulant,  with  the  engine  ("  iron  horse  ") 
or  train,  also  a  means  of  locomotion  and  of  sex  stimu- 
lation. The  substitution  of  the  fear  of  the  engine,  train 
and  everything  connected  therewith  would  thus  be  jus- 
tified as  being  a  much  more  bearable  idea  than  the 
revolting  horse-sex  association. 

In  childhood  the  horse  became,  through  its  sexual 
significance,  the  source  of  both  the  patient's  greatest 
pleasure  and  greatest  fear.  In  late  adolescence  his 
greatest  pleasure  and  greatest  fear  came  from  mastur- 
bation. This  double  sexual  conflict  of  pleasure  and 
fear  inevitably  gave  rise  to  a  very  intense  mental  con- 
flict. When  the  masturbation  conflict  overshadowed 
and  practically  usurped  the  horse-sex  conflict,  imag- 
ery of  girls'  faces  appeared  in  the  sex  dreams  instead 
of  horses,  and  the  fear  of  horses  tended  to  decrease 
as  the  fear  of  masturbation  increased.  Then  when  the 
emotion  of  the  later  conflict  became  intolerable,  there 
was  a  sudden  reversion  to  the  childhood  horse-sex  con- 
flict, which,  however,  undergoing  an  automatic  substi- 


THE  CASE  OF  N 69 

tution,  appeared  as  the  phobia  of  railroad  travel.  A 
similar  process  was  involved  in  the  development  of  the 
phobias  centered  about  the  trolleys,  boating,  walking, 
and  even  in  those  phobias,  previously  described,  not 
necessarily  involving  locomotion.  During  the  early 
horse-sex  struggle,  for  example,  it  was  the  patient's 
habit,  when  the  family  planned  a  drive,  to  go  himself, 
if  possible,  on  the  trolley,  thus  avoiding  occasions  when 
he  might  be  expected  to  drive  or  to  handle  horses  in 
some  other  way.  Likewise,  when  the  family  was  on  a 
picnic  at  a  lake  near  b}^,  he  would  go  out  in  a  boat  at 
times  when  he  might  be  expected  to  help  harness. 
Walking,  as  once  noted,  also  served  as  an  escape  from 
possible  stable  duties.  It  is  possible  to  find  an  early 
childhood  "  escape "  paralleling  every  later  phobia. 
Even  the  phobias  most  intimately  and  obviously  asso- 
ciated with  the  recent  masturbation  conflict,  like  the 
fear  of  being  left  alone  at  home,  have  their  further 
basis  in  certain  elements  of  the  childhood  conflict :  in 
earlier  years,  to  follow  out  the  example  of  the  fear  of 

being  alone,  when  left  alone  at  home,  N had  often 

struggled  against  the  temptation  to  go  to  the  stable 
to  watch  the  horses,  while  at  the  same  time  there  was 
a  more  or  less  continual  fear  that  he  might  be  called 
upon  in  an  emergency  to  harness  or  care  for  them  in 
some  way. 

Some  time  before  the  advent  of  the  neurosis,  but  yet 
far  enough  into  the  masturbation  period  to  become 
much  bound  up  with  it,  N ,  mainly  through  pro- 
pinquity, had  formed  a  more  or  less  intimate  friend- 
ship with  a  certain  Miss  Z ,  a  ,young  woman  of  some 

physical  attractiveness,  but  whose  mental  and  social 
attainments,  together  with  a  decidedly  unpredictable 
disposition,  occasioned  no  little  degree  of  dissatisfac- 


70  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

tion.  Not  only  did  she  become  the  innocent  focus  of 
many  unhappy  self-abasing  reflections,  but  throughout 

the  friendship  N had  suffered  many  misgivings  as 

to  whether  she  were  a  truly  dependable  friend,  or  were 
merely  treating  him  politically  for  the  purpose  of  se- 
curing a  tolerable  and  reasonably  generous  social  es- 
cort. A  previous  friend  or  two  had  been  treated 
rather  cavalierly.  Miss  Z seemed  to  demand  ex- 
clusive attention,  yet  her  own  privilege  and  habit  was 

to   be  as   unexclusive   as   might  be.     N 's   friends, 

observing  the  exclusiveness,  feared  serious  intent,  and 

had  long  been  critical  of  Miss  Z 's  alleged  many 

short-comings.     The    physician,    knowing    little    other 

than  N 's  onesided  view  of  the  situation,  assumed  a 

strictly  neutral  role.  N himself,  thoroughly  cog- 
nizant of  the  many  unhappy  associations  clustered 
about  Miss  Z ,  and  realizing  that  a  continued  irri- 
tating friendship  with  her  was  prolonging  the  neurosis, 
would  have  ended  the  friendship  at  once ;  but  such  a 
change  meant  a  considerable  reduction  of  a  social  dis- 
traction   in   many    ways    highly    desirable,    and,    with 

characteristic   neurotic  indecision,   N was   unable 

suddenly  to  adopt  a  new  course. 

A  further  cause  of  deferred  recovery  was  found  within 
the  patient's  home  circle,  where  an  elder  member  of  the 
family,  particularly  associated  with  an  unusually  dis- 
agreeable family  estrangement,  apparently  failing  to 
understand  the  neurotic  mind,  gradually  became  more 
and  more  critical  of  the  patient's  long  illness  and  the 
physician's    "  senseless  "    methods    of    treatment.     For 

several  years,  N had  been  much  concerned  over  the 

estrangement,  and  now  of  course  the  whole  affair  be- 
came especially  aggravating.  But  there  was  no  way 
of  "  explaining  away  "  or  remedying  the  situation,  nor 


THE  CASE  OF  N 71 

was  there  for  the  time  being  any  other  convenient  place 
of  residence  for  the  patient.  The  dining  table  con- 
tinued to  be  the  hete-noir  for  N ,  now,  even  as  it 

had  been  in  childhood,  when  at  sundry  times  at  table, 
he  had  been  joked  for  his  "  queerness,"  for  being  "  like 
his  mother,"  or  had  been  upbraided  for  his  fear  of 
horses,  aversion  for  the  family  business,  and  various 
other  faults  great  and  small.  At  the  present  time,  with 
these  old  associations  furnishing  excellent  soil  for  neu- 
rotic  seed,   when    unpleasant    allusions    to    the    family 

estrangement  were  made,  it  often  reacted  on  N to 

produce  nausea,  vomiting,  or  other  digestive  disturb- 
ance. 

The  foregoing  are  all  the  essential  points  of  the 
patient's  history  obtained  up  to  October  1,  1915. 
Two  childhood  episodes,  not  yet  discovered,  were  now 
predicted,  a  first  fundamental  to  the  horse-sex  conflict, 
and  another  determining  the  anal  region  as  a  mildly 
erogenous  zone  and  associating  the  whole  digestive  ap- 
paratus with  sex.  Presently  a  fortuitous  circumstance 
favored  us.  One  day,  while  throwing  a  rope  over  a 
limb  in  tree-trimming  work  the  patient  suddenly  re- 
called a  former  family  hired  man  who  had  hanged  him- 
self in  the  woods  shortly  before  his  intended  marriage. 
This  long-standing  association  might  in  part  explain 
the  patient's  fear  of  the  woods  and  solitude.  How- 
ever that  may  be,  the  memory  of  the  hanging  episode 
led  the  patient  to  a  talk  with  his  father,  in  which  the 

latter  was  reminded  of  two  of  N 's  early  childhood 

experiences.  First,  when  three  years  old,  while  riding 
in  an  old  style  "  gig,"  the  mare  became  unmanageable 
and  he  was  thrown  violently  so  that  his  private  parts 
struck  against  the  buttocks  of  the  mare.  Second, 
shortly  after  this,  during  an  attack  of  gastritis,  it 


73  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

became  impossible,  on  account  of  his  cries  and  strug- 
gles, to  feed  him  by  the  mouth,  and  he  was  for  a  time 
given  enemas  of  liquid  food.  During  the  neurosis,  it 
is  to  be  noted,  the  patient  often  felt  like  crying  when 
at  table. 

After  the  disposition  of  these  incidents  it  was  as- 
sumed that  all  of  any  importance  had  been  discovered, 
and  occasional  talks  between  physician  and  patient 
were  had  for  a  time  for  the  purpose  of  suggestion  and 

reeducation.     N continued  for  some  weeks  to  be 

timid  about  starting  out  alone  for  a  walk,  but  one  or 
two  experiences  without  phobias  soon  restored  him  to 
nearly  his  original  self-confidence.  One  much  dreaded, 
but  thoroughly  successful  experience  in  being  left  alone 
at  home  was  sufficient  to  eliminate  another  phobia. 
The  fears  of  self-injury,  of  social  excitement,  of  crowds, 
etc.,  tended  gradually  to  disappear.  With  each  suc- 
cessful   experience    the    physician    hastened    to    assure 

N that  he  (the  physician)  thoroughly  believed  that 

all  the  phobias  had  in  reality  disappeared,  but  that  very 
possibly  some  occasional  disturbance  might  persist  for 
a  while  because  of  the  many  life-long  conflicts  and 
fears.  In  spite  of  the  unpleasant  family  situation,  the 
temporary  lack  of  vocation  (though  a  responsible  posi- 
tion had  been  accepted),  and  in  spite  of  continued  irri- 
tation arising  from  the  Z friendship,  N now 

appeared  mentally  normal  and  physically  robust. 

The  travel  phobia  remained  more  or  less  persistent, 

but  N presently  suggested  that  he  attempt  a  trip 

alone  to  a  city  near  by.  This  trip  was  anticipated 
for  several  days  with  little  or  no  apprehension,  but 
when  the  actual  moment  of  departure  by  train  ap- 
proached, a  severe  attack  of  nausea  and  vomiting  came 
on  without  apparent  physical  cause.     A  second  attempt 


THE  CASE  OF  N 73 

to  start  was  made  the  same  day,  but  this,  though  un- 
accompanied by  nausea,  was  the  occasion  of  sufficient 
emotional  disturbance  to  deter  him  from  the  trip. 
Some  days  of  weakness  and  discouragement  followed. 

N ,  at  about  this  time  being  called  upon  to  make 

an  urgent  business  trip  to  New  York  City,  consulted 
the  physician  as  to  the  advisability  of  such  a  trip,  if 
accompanied   by    a    companion.     Both   physician    and 

N had  some  misgivings  regarding  the  companion, 

fearing  that  there  might  be  a  tendency  in  such  pam- 
pering to  make  N more  dependent  than  ever  in 

matters  of  travel;  but  the  trip  finally  was  made  with 
another  person,  and  proved  in  every  way  to  be  suc- 
cessful. Very  shortly  after  this  traveling  alone  on 
railroad  or  trolley  became  quite  uneventful,  save  for 
an  occasional  vague  anxiety  accompanying  the  first 
trips  and  appearing  once  or  twice  again  later,  when 
N was  exceptionally  fatigued. 

Presently  the  unsatisfactory  Z friendship  was 

brought  to  a  close  without  serious  jar  to  either  party, 
and,  within  a  fortnight  of  the  New  York  trip,  early  in 
April,  1916,  the  patient  returned  to  his  university,  re- 
suming the  full  burden  of  work  without  difficulty.  Fre- 
quent errands  into  the  business  section  of  the  city  in 
which  the  university  is  situated  soon  dispelled  the  anx- 
ieties associated  with  crowds  and  city  excitement.     As 

successful  experiences  accumulated  to  give  N a  new 

mental  background,  self-confidence  and  optimism  in- 
creased rapidly  to  a  wliolesome,  normal  level,  which  has 
now  been  maintained  for  considerably  more  than  a 
year. 

Several  interesting  questions  arise  from  this  case. 
The  physician's  ability,  particularly,  to  discuss  them, 
and  his  point  of  view  with  the  reasons  therefor,  could 


74  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

perhaps  be  better  judged  from  the  monograph  already 
mentioned,  as  it  embodies  the  results  of  many  years  of 
experience  along  these  lines.  His  views,  however,  to- 
gether with  those  of  his  collaborator,  are  here  reiter- 
ated and  discussed  more  specifically  in  reference  to  the 
case  in  hand. 

The  case  of  N certainly  shows  that  a  psycho- 
analysis, in  the  strictly  Freudian  sense,  is  not  always 
necessary,  even  in  severe  neuroses  and  psychoneuroses. 
The  procedure  here  may  be  called  psycho-analysis,  but 
more  correctly  psychological  analysis,  after  Janet. 
Parenthetically,  we  consider  that,  though  Freud  and 
his  school  are  bold  discoverers  and  insatiable  collectors, 
it  needs  such  men  as  Pierre  Janet  and  Morton  Prince 
to  verify  the  discoveries  and  to  assort  the  collections. 
There  is  no  question  in  this  case  but  that  there  were 
traumatisms  and  conflicts.  The  "  double  "  idea  is  un- 
usual. The  two  parallel  sets  of  conflicts  served  to 
prolong  the  case  and  to  make  it  more  difficult,  but  one 
hardly  need  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  no  impor- 
tant matter  had  to  be  extracted  from  the  subconscious, 
save,  possibly,  the  gig  incident  and  the  experiences 
with  rectal  feeding,  which  were  predicted  with  accuracy 
and  arrived  at  adventitiously  in  the  course  of  the  pa- 
tient's talks  with  his  father.  Moreover,  it  is  probable 
that  no  amount  of  psycho-analysis  would  have  revealed 
these  two  experiences.  It  was  tried.  Dreams  were 
studied  and  analyzed,  and  if  the  patient  had  proved 
reticent  (or,  following  more  closely  the  scientific  vernac- 
ular, "  shown  great  resistances ")  much  could  have 
been  learned  from  them.  Still,  nothing  we  found  led 
to  these  two  episodes.  Our  assumption  is  that  at  the 
tender   age   of  two   or   three  years   these   experiences, 


THE  CASE  OF  N 75 

though  producing  such  a  profound  effect  upon  the  or- 
ganism as  to  establish  an  indehble  physiological  im- 
pression, there  is  extreme  improbability  of  their  in- 
volving consciousness  to  the  extent  of  establishing  a 
disagreeable  memory  needing  later  expurgation  or  re- 
pression into  the  subconscious.  If  this  point  is  well 
taken,  the  analj^sis  has  been  sufficiently  complete. 
When  all  had  been  discovered  and  explained,  there  was 
not  an  instant  dispersion  of  all  fear  and  apprehension. 
Neither  would  there  be  such  a  result,  ordinarily,  unless 
the  neurosis  was  of  a  mild  and  superficial  type.  Many 
competent  writers,  despite  Freudian  disapproval,  would 
agree  with  us  that  a  complete  Freudian  catharsis  and 
abreaction  leaves  the  patient  psychically  as  weak  as 
he  would  be  physical!}^  after  the  analogous  physical 
catharsis,  and  that  this  Freudian  method  seldom  pre- 
cludes the  necessity  for  suggestion  and  reeducation. 

The  doctrine  of  pol3'morphous  perversion  of  child 
sexuality  in  this  case  seems  to  have  some  refutation. 
One  could  hardly  say  that  perverse  tendencies  existed, 
ab  origine,  after  learning  the  two  incidents  which  gave 
the  sex  manifestations  a  seemingly  perverse  direction. 

From  time  immemorial  shyness,  bashfulness,  lack  of 
confidence,  misanthrop}'^,  and  much  more  have  been 
called  the  universal  heritage  of  the  masturbator.  But 
here  note  that  the  individual  under  consideration  was 
always,  in  his  early  years,  solitary,  shy,  "  queer,"  and, 
in  a  way,  proud  of  his  peculiarities ;  note  also,  how- 
ever, that  he  never  masturbated  until  twenty  years  old, 
and  that  after  this  there  occurred  a  transmogrification 
of  all  these  former  characteristics  into  those  of  the 
thoroughly  normal  young  adult  male,  and  at  the  time 
of  recovery,  though  he  still  masturbated  as  necessity 


76  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

occasionally  demanded,  there  was  nothing  in  his  man- 
ner, bearing  or  physique  to  distinguish  liim  from  any 
good  young  American. 

The  Freudian  esoteric,  on  the  pinnacle  of  fancied 
scientific  isolation,  pursues  indefinitely  and  indefatig- 
ably  the  chimera  of  submerged,  repressed,  subconscious 
memory,  while  the  veriest  tyro,  endowed  with  common 
sense  and  humanity,  may,  with  shght  effort,  wrest  these 
important  facts  from  the  conscious  mind  of  the  patient 
at  one  sitting.  This  is  meant  as  no  derogation  of  the 
sub-conscious,  co-conscious  or  un-conscious,  for  Prince, 
Freud,  Janet,  and  others  have  demonstrated  and,  to  a 
certain  extent,  delimited  this  important  region  of  the 
psyche  beyond  peradventure,  and  even  the  refinement 
of  the  ultra-Freudian  analysis  may  undoubtedly  at 
times  be  requisite.  Perhaps  only  a  rural  free  lance  in 
neurology,  who  has  no  traditions,  can  say  that  at  least 
half  the  cases  where  strict  Freudian  technique  has  been 
observed,  needed  but  a  sympathetic  listener  who  first 
convinced  the  patient  that  he  wished  to  help  him,  that 
he  knew  how  to  help  him,  and  that  he  would  hold  his 
confidences  inviolate. 

While  we  do  not  wish  to  pose  as  experts  in  dream 
interpretation,  we  may  perhaps  be  permitted  a  few 
observations  in  this  connection,  observations  which 
could  well  be  illustrated  by  many  dreams  of  both  neu- 
rotic and  normal  people  which  we  have  at  hand,  but 
which  the  reader  will  find  quite  sufficiently  illustrated 

in  the  unique  collection  of  N 's  dreams  in  Part  II. 

It  would  appear  that  by  no  means  are  all  dreams  for 
the  purpose  of  fulfilling  disguised  wishes,  but  many 
times  serve  rather  to  digest,  to  codify,  and  to  assimi- 
late much  of  the  recent  material  which  has  entered  the 
dreamer's  waking  consciousness.      (Note  the  "  review  " 


THE  CASE  OF  N 77 

dreams.)  While  many  dreams  are  frankly  or  dis- 
guisedly  sexual,  many,  even  in  neurotics,  whose  minds 
have  a  sexual  preoccupation,  are  concerned  with  en- 
tirely indifferent  subjects.  Many  sexual  dreams  of 
adults  are  uncensored  in  large  measure  and  tendencies 
which  the  dreamer  would  indignantly  disclaim  in  his 
waking  state  appear  in  his  dreams.  No  CEdipus  com- 
plex has  been  revealed  in  this  case ;  its  lack  also  in  other 
cases  coming  under  our  observation  would  seem  to  make 
its  universality  extremely  doubtful.  The  suggestive 
therapy  of  the  analyst  distinctly  modifies,  perhaps  even 
makes,  many  of  the  patient's  dreams.  (Note  Dream 
XLVII.)  Transference,  as  evidenced  in  some  of  these 
dreams,  occurs  between  man  and  man  just  as  it  occurs 
between  woman  and  man,  and  while  it  may,  if  the  analyst 
is  willing  or  careless,  assume  a  sexual  significance,  it 
is  ordinarily  sans  libido,  and  its  synonym  is  confidence. 
Though  some  strict  Freudians  may  consider  our  later 
interpretations  fragmentary  or  crude,  the  fact  that 
the  patient's  history  was  freely  given  before  the  dreams 
were  analyzed,  that  there  were  few  or  no  resistances, 
that  the  dreamer  himself  was  interested  and  in  some  de- 
gree qualified  to  obtain  a  correct  interpretation,  that 
he  recovered  completely  —  a  result  which  is  possible, 
according  to  Freud's  school,  only  when  the  analysis 
is  correct  and  complete, —  all  would  make  it  seem  super- 
fluous to  inject  more  or  different  sex  meaning  into  the 
dreams  than  now  appears,  though  many  similar  dreams 
of  suggestible  people,  analyzed  by  a  rigorous  Freudian 
standard  and  symbolism,  would  doubtless  be  claimed  to 
show  delinquencies  and  departures  from  the  norm  far 
greater  than  those  we  have  indicated.  An  inherent 
pragmatic  tendency  renders  us  loath  to  accept  in  its 
entirety    any   system   of   dream   interpretation   or    of 


78  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

neuro-therapeusis.  Every  system  has  some  elements 
of  truth  and  none  have  all.  Many  times  Freud's  re- 
ductive method  proves  efficacious,  but  we  refuse  to  be- 
lieve in  a  symbolization  universally  applicable  to  all 
dreams. 

At  a  later  stage  in  reeducation  the  long-circuiting, 
sublimating,  constructive  method  of  Jung  is  apparently 
correct.  In  many  dreams  of  people  ignorant  or  edu- 
cated, normal  or  neurotic,  something  like  the  recon- 
structive method  of  Horton  appears  to  give  the  only 
legitimate  analysis  of  the  dream.  We  definitely  at- 
tempt to  make  plain  that  a  pragmatic,  eclectic,  utilita- 
rian criterion  is  more  satisfactory,  at  least  from  the 
patient's  standpoint,  than  lofty  scientific  ideals  or  ab- 
stract discussions.  The  whole  question  seems  to  be 
largely  a  matter  of  method,  and  while  inductive  meth- 
ods seem  generally  the  more  accurate,  we  cannot  deny 
entirely  the  value  of  a  'priori  reasoning.  This  latter 
theoretical  method  of  the  idealist  was  formerly  adopted 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  practical  observation,  but  now 
induction  tries  to  stifle  all  that  transcends  observation. 
James  and  Aristotle,  both  excellent  men,  suggested  a 
middle  course.  The  middle  of  the  road  may  give  bet- 
ter perspective  than  either  side,  and  it  is  certainly  safer 
where  ruffians  infest  the  hedges.  Why  abandon  either 
soul  or  body.^  If  there  are  two,  neither  can  be  aban- 
doned with  impunity.  Then  again,  if  our  philosophy 
is  monistic,  we  must  still  consider  both  sides  of  the 
shield.  Why  not  lay  less  stress  on  psychoanalysis  or 
other  methods  in  the  treatment  of  neurotics  and  select 
the  method  which  works  most  clearly  to  the  advantage 
of  the  patient?  Perhaps  we  may  approach  unity  in 
that  way  as  well  as  or  better  than  by  attempting  to 


THE  CASE  OF  N 79 

demonstrate  the  pet  theories  with  which  we  have  be- 
come enamored. 

A  few  weeks  after  N 's  complete  recovery,  he  re- 
marked, upon  meeting  the  physician,  that  he  consid- 
ered the  Freudian  analysis  which  he  had  undergone 
rather  of  the  nature  of  a  "  scaffolding  "  than  the  real 
constructive  work  in  his  treatment.  In  pharmacolog- 
ical terms,  it  might  have  been  called  a  "  vehicle."  He 
considered  the  analysis  to  have  been  necessary,  of 
course,  in  order  that  the  physician's  suggestions  might 
be  intelligent  and  germain,  but  had  come  to  consider, 
as  he  looked  upon  the  case  in  retrospect,  that  the  sug- 
gestions rather  than  the  analj^sis,  had  been  the  principal 
therapeutic  agents  leading  to  recovery.  He  had  come 
to  believe,  furthermore,  that  the  "  scaffolding  "  should 
always  be  removed  immediately  after  it  had  served  its 
purpose,  just  as  one  removes  the  staging  after  shingling 
his  house.  The  physician  is  confident  that  these  con- 
clusions were  arrived  at  independently  of  his  own, 
though  his  own  are  similar.  Let  us  agree  that  psycho- 
analysis, or  psychological  analysis,  are  both  attempts 
to  get  at  what  is  in  the  mind,  regardless  of  whether  it 
is  in  the  conscious  mind  of  us  all,  the  co-conscious  of 
Prince,  the  sub-conscious  of  Janet,  or  the  un-conscious 
of  Freud.  The  physician  cheerfully  admits  that  his 
method  is  simpler  and  involves  less  technique  than  the 
Freudian  ps^^choanalysis,  and  his  only  claim  for  its 
advantage  is  that  it  saves  time,  is  less  elaborate  and 
disturbs  the  patient  much  less  than  the  more  erudite 
method. 

It  is  always  necessary  to  remember,  in  dealing  with 
neurotics,  that  we  may  create  a  new  introspection  neu- 


80  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

rosis  while  we  are  getting  rid  of  the  original  disturb- 
ance.    This  patient,  N ,  having  a  twofold  trouble 

of  long  standing,  considerable  time,  much  questioning, 
and  careful  introspection  were  necessarily  involved  in 
the  treatment.  After  everything  necessary  for  a  cure 
had  been  revealed,  the  patient  became  more  anxious  than 
the  physician  lest  something  had  been  overlooked,  not- 
withstanding his  familiarity  with  psychological  litera- 
ture. Much  more  than  in  this  case  neurotic  people  of 
lesser  attainments  continue  to  worry  and  introspect  in 
a  never-ending  seeking  for  some  trivial  factor  which 
might  have  been  of  some  moment  in  the  causation  of 
the  neurosis.  This  habit  of  introspection  may  prove 
more  difficult  to  eradicate  than  the  original  neurosis. 
Though  the  physician  had  been  for  years  on  guard 
against  this  very  thing  and  did  not  relax  his  vigilance 
in  this  case,  some  time  elapsed  and  some  difficulties  were 
met  before  the  habits  of  constant  seeking  and  persist- 
ent introspection  were  overcome.  In  fine,  it  required 
time  and  effort  to  remove  the  "  scaffolding "  used  in 
this  case,  for  to  have  left  it  would  have  been  unsightly 
if  not  dangerous.  It  is  unquestioned  that  suggestion 
and  reeducation  had  to  be  employed  constantly  for  a 
considerable  time  after  the  original  process  of  psycho- 
analysis or  psychological  analysis  was  complete,  the 
suggestion,  particularly,  serving  as  a  means  of  remov- 
ing the  "  scaffolding."  It  has  been  observed,  not  only 
in  this,  but  in  many  cases,  that  merely  unloading  the 
conscious  or  unconscious  mind  of  its  burdens  and 
traumas  to  priest  or  physician  does  not  effect  a  com- 
plete cure.  What  the  priest  says  to  his  parishioner 
or  the  physician  to  his  patient,  after  the  facts  have 
been  obtained  by  some  form  of  analysis,  establishes 
a  new  trend  of  thought  and  a  new   mental   attitude. 


THE  CASE  OF  N 81 

These  effect  the  cure.  Freud,  we  are  aware,  largely 
disregards  in  his  writings  the  therapeutic  value  of  sug- 
gestion, but  in  the  long  seances  which  he  holds  with 
his  patients  he  cannot  avoid  making  some  suggestions 
to  them,  although  he  himself  may  be  unconscious  of 
doing  so.  Any  form  of  analysis,  by  making  physician 
and  patient  aware  of  the  conditions,  builds  the  "  scaf- 
folding "  or  staging,  abreaction  sorts  the  materials, 
while  the  suggestion  of  the  physician  cements  them  to- 
gether to  form  a  permanent  structure. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  CASE  OF  N- 


PAUT    U.    INTERPRETATION    OF    DREAMS 

By  Prof.  L.  C.  Day,  A.M. 

It  is  fortunately  possible  to  begin  the  study  of  the 
dreams  in  the  case  of  N with  several  of  the  pa- 
tient's dreams  which  his  psychological  interest  had  led 
him  to  write  out  and  preserve  more  than  a  year  before 

the  neurosis  actually  developed.     N 's  records  show 

a  few  fragmentary  interpretations  which  he  attempted 
to  make  at  the  time,  but  none  of  these  touch  more  than 
an  occasional  obvious  repressed  wish;  in  most  cases 
clearly  dependent  upon  physical  or  physiological  con- 
ditions. But  now,  privileged  as  we  are  to  view  these 
dreams  in  the  light  of  all  that  has  happened  since,  it  is 

a  relatively  simple  matter  for  us  to  go  beyond  N 's 

original  attempts,  and  to  discover  the  deeper  symbolism 
of  repressed  wishes  and  sexual  struggle. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  first  definite  neurotic 
phobic  symptoms  appeared  on  March  17,  1915.  The 
mental  conflict  arising  from  the  practice  of  masturba- 
tion, however,  as  we  noted,  had  been  continuing  for 
nearly  three  years,  all  the  timiC  becoming  more  intense 
and  more  intolerable.  The  only  dreams  during  the 
early  portion  of  this  period  of  which  the  patient  has  a 
definite  recollection  are  those  characterized  by  the  horse- 
sex  images  usually  preceding  or  accompanying  noc- 
turnal emissions  ;  but  undoubtedly  had  the  other  dreams 
been  preserved,  we  should  have  found  a  very  consid- 
erable number  portraying  in  some  symbolic  way,  the 

82 


THE  CASE  OF  N 83 

mental  struggle  which  was  going  on  more  or  less  per- 
sistently from  the  date  of  the  first  masturbation  ex- 
perience. 

The  most  carefully  recorded  pre-neurosis  dream  is 

dated  January  26,  1914.     Following  N 's  habit  of 

dividing  his  dreams  into  so-called  "  phases,"  the  essen- 
tial details  of  this  dream  run  thus : 

1.  Night.  I  am  lying  in  the  brass  bed  in  the  old  boys' 
room  at  home.  The  bed  is  not  in  a  natural  position,  but  the 
doors  and  windows  of  the  room  are  as  usual. 

2.  I  have  a  vague  notion  that  a  burglar  is  planning  to 
come  in  through  the  porch  window,  at  the  right,  near  the 
foot  of  the  bed.  It  somehow  seems  that  some  one  has  told 
me  of  his  coming. 

3.  I  lie  for  a  moment  half  awake  and  afraid  to  move,  with 
limbs  much  cramped. 

4.  The  burglar  finally  jumps  upon  the  bed  at  my  back, 
as  I  lie  on  my  left  side.     The  bed  now  seems  to  be  the  one 

at  I (where  N was  then  visiting).     I  pretend  to 

sleep,  but  really  I  am  quite  awake. 

5.  The  burglar  presently  inserts  his  revolver  in  my  right 
ear.     I  speak  lightly  to  myself:     "Well!     Here  goes  fifty 

or  sixty  dollars !  "      (This  amount  was  actually  in  N 's 

clothes.)  Then  I  begin  to  wonder  what  I  shall  say  to  the 
burglar  when  he  fully  awakens  me.  Meantime,  the  re- 
volver is  gradually  pressed  farther  into  my  ear.  I  awaken, 
considerably  frightened. 

Continuing  the  phase  arrangement  in  our  interpre- 
tation, the  first  section  would  seem  very  clearly  to  in- 
dicate a  reversion  to  childhood  scenes.     N ,  though 

now  out  of  college  and  in  a  city  about  a  thousand  miles 
from  his  boyhood  home,  goes  back  in  his  dream  to  the 
room  occupied  for  several  years  by  himself  and  an  older 

brother.     It  was  in  this  room  that  N suffered  his 

first  experiences  with  erections.  The  burglar,  indica- 
tive of  a  more  or  less  characteristic  fear  of  N 's 


84  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

early  life,  well  represents  the  dangers  of  masturbation, 

while  the  fact  "  some  one  "  seems  to  have  told  N 

of  the  burglar's  coming  would  seem  to  represent  the 
body    of    traditional    "  scare "    literature    from    which 

N got    this    idea    of    danger.     The    third    phase, 

though  involving  obvious  psysiological  factors,  never- 
theless at  the  same  time  symbolizes  the  painful  mental 
situation  arising  from  masturbation;  the  dreamer,  it 
is  to  be  noted,  is  cramped  and  cannot  move,  that  is  to 
say,  cannot  stop  masturbation.  In  the  fourth  phase 
the  danger  is  represented  as  getting  uncomfortably 
near  (the  burglar  jumps  upon  the  bed).  The  dreamer 
pretends  to  ignore  the  fear  of  danger,  but  is  really  cog- 
nizant and  quite  fearful  (pretends  sleep  but  is  really 
awake).     Finally,  in   the  fifth  phase,  the  situation  is 

represented  as  becoming  decidedly  critical,  with  N 

ready  to  give  up  freely  and  as  philosophicaHv  as  pos- 
sible to  a  habit  which  is  apparently  hopeless.  The 
money  may  be  taken  to  symbolize  sexual  power. 

This  first  dream  is  typical  of  a  great  number  whose 
latent  content  may  be  distinctly  revealed  as  centering 
about  the  persistent  worry  over  masturbation  merely 
as  a  habit.  A  less  common  type  of  dream  is  the  one 
in  which  masturbation  in  its  relation  to  the  other  activ- 
ities of  life  is  the  topic  concerned.  The  first  type  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  more  purely  "  masturbation  com- 
plex," while  the  second  involves  as  well  another  complex, 
most  frequently  perhaps  an  "  occupational "  complex. 
The  following  dream  is  illustrative: 

1.  I  am  in  the  S high  school  dressing-room,  yet  the 

stairway  and  hall  are  arranged  as  those  in  old  T Hall 

at  A .     The  room,  too,  is   partly  like   the   Hall,  with 

seats  and  desks  set  over  near  the  stage  side.     School  is  in 
session. 


THE  CASE  OF  N 85 

2.  I  am  having  great  difficulty  with  my  clothes,  which 
are  half  off,  and  much  tangled.  Very  vaguely,  other  young 
fellows  in  the  dressing-room  are  having  similar  difficulties. 

3.  I  enter  the  schoolroom  to  the  right  of  the  principal's 
desk,  stepping  towards  the  blackboard,  which  is  behind  the 
desk.  I  am  dressed  only  in  a  union  suit,  and  am  holding 
my  hands  high  in  the  air. 

4.  I  debate  with  myself  for  some  moments  whether  such 
is  the  proper  dress  for  school.  It  seems  that  it  is  not,  yet 
I  am  able  to  recall  dimly  a  number  of  occasions  when  union 
suits  have  been  worn  publicly. 

5.  I  suddenly  find  myself  back  in  the  dressing-room,  con- 
fusedly putting  on  my  clothes.     Awaken. 

The  latent   content  here  is   clearly   concerned  with 

N 's  imminent  career  as  a  teacher  and  participant 

in  general  social  life,  the  composite  schoolroom  and 
hall  being  taken  as  being  significant  of  both  teaching 
and  broader  public  activities.  The  struggle  with  the 
clothes  indicates  the  dreamer's  difficulty  with  mastur- 
bation, a  difficulty  serving  to  confuse  and  delay  him 
just  as  he  is  about  to  enter  upon  his  career.  The  other 
young  men  in  the  dressing-room  represent  those  having 
similar  difl5culties.     The  third  phase  is   anticipatory: 

N is  in  a  way  asking  himself  the  question :     "  Shall 

I  enter  into  teaching  and  social  life  openly  and  hon- 
estly as  a  masturbator.P  "  N himself  has  sug- 
gested that  the  union  suit  symbolizes  masturbation,  in 
that  it  is  one  thing  (cf.  solitary  masturbation)  taking 
the  place  of  two  things  (cf.  normal  intercourse  of  two 
persons).  The  elements  of  openness  and  honesty  are 
symbolized  by  the  standing  attitude,  with  hands  raised 

high  in  the  air.     In  the  fourth  phase  N is   seen 

debating  with  himself  whether  it  is  proper  to  go  out 
as  a  model  for  youth  (teacher)  while  yet  a  masturbator. 
He  reflects,  however,  that  probably  many  other  young 


86  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

men  have  gone  out  in  that  way.     Finally,  in  the  fifth 

phase,  we  have  N deciding  that  such  a  course  is 

not  right  and  renewing  the  struggle  to  stop  his  habit 
(confusedly  putting  on  clothes). 

Involving  again  the  more  purely  masturbation  com- 
plex, we  find  a  number  of  typical  "  struggle  "  dreams, 
of  v/hich  the  following  is  representative : 

1.  I  am  standing  on  a  cornice,  just  below  a  great  dome, 
grayish  white  in  color,  made  of  stone  or  some  other  very 
hard  material.  The  surface  is  imeven  with  a  hazy  design 
of  rings  and  lines. 

2.  Presently  I  try  desperately  to  climb  upward,  vaguely 
desiring  to  get  a  view  from  the  top  of  the  dome,  but  I  fall 
back  repeatedly.  I  suffer  no  particular  pain,  but  have  a 
strong  feeling  of  chagrin  and  disappointment. 

3.  Several  other  people  are  climbing  upward  also.  Some 
reach  a  higher  point  than  I,  but  all  slip  back  at  times. 

The  masturbation  struggle  in  dreams  like  this,  comes 
very  near  to  the  surface.  The  whole  forlorn  struggle 
is  symbolized  by  the  futile  attempts  to  climb  the  dome, 
while  the  presence  of  others  in  similar  distress  is  in- 
dicative of  N 's  strongly  growing  tendency  to  make 

unhappy     personal     comparisons.     Although     N 

could  not  recall  in  detail  any  dream  between  the  date 
of  the  March  nervous  attack  and  the  beginning  of  his 
treatment  in  August,  he  remembered  in  a  general  way 
that  there  were  a  number  of  dreams  involving  the 
"  struggle "  element,  the  dreamer  commonly  finding 
himself  standing  in  a  deep  mudhole,  treacherous  swamp, 
or  rapidly  flooding  plain.  Again,  he  would  seem  to 
be  climbing  a  very  long  or  seemingly  endless  stairway. 

N had  been   under   treatment    about   a   month 

before  we  undertook  to  record  his  dreams  systemat- 
ically.    From  the  very  first  these  dreams  reflect  most 


THE  CASE  OF  N 87 

conspicuously,  perhaps,  the  course  of  treatment. 
Sometimes  the  dream  is  very  brief  and  involves  only 
the  material  of  the  most  recent  "  conversation  "  with 
the  physician,  though  as  the  treatment  progressed  there 
was  a  tendency  for  the  dream  to  become  more  elaborate 
and  to  "  review "  the  entire  case  to  date.  The 
"  worry  "  element  —  worry  over  his  own  condition  — 
rather  than  the  "  wish  "  seems  to  predominate  in  most 
instances,  until  late  in  the  treatment  (or  occasionally 

earlier,  when  N ^  was  in  a  cheerful  frame  of  mind) 

when  the  dream  was  often  concluded  by  a  brief  hopeful 
wish,  usually  for  recovery. 

Dreams  one  and  four  both  rehash  in  a  typical  man- 
ner the  material  of  a  recent  "  conversation  " : 

1.  I  am  back  of  the  house  (N 's  home)  between  the 

buildings   (barn  and  house  proper)   with  several  men,  one 

of  whom  seems  to  be  Dr.  R ,  though  he  looks  like  Gen. 

French  of  the  British  Army.  The  men  all  have  British 
Army  khaki-colored  caps,  long  army  overcoats,  puttees, 
etc.,  but  I  have  simply  the  overcoat  and  am  wearing  my 
everyday  brown  cap.  We  are  all  shovelling  manure  over  a 
fence  rail.   .   .   . 

4.  I  am  walking  or  being  carried  along  a  height,  look- 
ing down  upon  a  roof  at  my  right.     The  roof  appears  to 

be  that  of  the  A fire  station,  but  the  size  and  color  of 

the  building  are  more  like  M 's  stable.     On  the  roof, 

slightly  confused  M'ith  tree  branches,  are  immense  chalk  or 
white  paint  figures  in  more  or  less  of  a  jumble,  but  remind- 
ing me  of  problems  on  a  slate.  Vague  sensation  of  moving 
forward  and  out  of  sight  of  the  roof.     Awaken. 

The  first  dream  followed  shortly  after  a  discussion 
with  the  physician  on  the  possible  relations  of  the 
horse-sex  associations  to  N 's  neurosis.  N re- 
flects that  he  and   the  physician  —  Dr.   R ,   seem 

to  have  found,  in  the  horse-sex  associations,  something 


88  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

quite  fundamental  to  the  Illness.     Having  found  this, 

N feels   that   they  are  now  armed  and   equipped 

(soldiers),  with  Dr.  R at  the  head  (Gen,  French) 

to  go  ahead  and  clean  up  matters  (shovelling  manure). 
The  soldiers  are  taken  further  to  symbolize  the  med- 
ical authorities  that  Dr.  R frequently  mentioned 

in     his     discussions.     These     authorities,     under     Dr. 

R 's    personal   direction,    as    it   were,    are   helping 

N out  of  his  trouble.  Manure  is  selected  to  sym- 
bolize  the   nervous   difficulties   because   of   the   various 

vulgar  horse  associations.     N himself  is   dressed 

only  partly  in  uniform  to  symbolize  the  fact  that  his 
knowledge  and  efforts  in  regard  to  the  case  are  at  a 
relatively  amateurish  state  of  development,  compared 
with  those  of  Dr.  R and  the  recognized  authori- 
ties. 

Dream  4  followed  a  discussion  in  which  physician 
and  patient  spent  much  time  in  summarizing  the  case 
to  date  and  outlining  the  several  problems  involved. 
In  the  dream  the  large  chalk  or  painted  figures  repre- 
sent the  problems  which  Dr.  R and  N must 

work  out.  They  seem  to  have  most  of  the  data,  but 
it  is  yet  to  be  calculated  (the  figures  are  in  more  or 
less  a  jumble).  A  stable  roof  is  indicative  again,  of 
the  fundamental  horse-sex  complex,  while  the  fire-sta- 
tion is  confused  with  it,  for  physician  and  patient  were 
yet  in  doubt  as  to  the  place  of  fire,  which  appeared  in 
many  childhood  dreams,  in  reference  to  certain  neu- 
rosis symptoms. 

A  portion  of  Dream  9  is  interesting  because  of  the 
clever  way  in  which  the  dream  "  censor  "  has  distorted 
and  symbolized  a  fine  distinction  between  "  functional  " 
and  "  organic "  nervous  diseases  —  a  distinction 
brought  out  in  a  previous  discussion  between  the  physi- 


THE  CASE  OF  N 89 

cian  and  N ,  at  a  time  when  the  latter  was  worry- 
ing considerably  for  fear  that  his  difficulty  was  or- 
ganic. 

9.   I    am    standing   in    the    B.    and    X.    freight   yard    at 

A ,  feeling  strongly  that  I  am  "  waiting  for  something." 

Presently  a  small  crazy-looking  engine  appears  from  near 
the  freighthouse,  recklessly  backing  several  freight  cars 
across  the  tracks,  though  all  wheels  seem  to  be  on  the  rails. 

The  first  feeling  of  expectancy  is  apparently  a  brief 
review  of  the  early  anticipation  of  some  mental  or 
physical  trouble  which  was  to  arise  from  masturbation. 
Due  to  the  development  of  strong  railway  and  travel 
phobias  in  many  later  dreams,  railroad  equipment  in 
some  form  came  to  symbolize  the  neurosis.  This  is 
most  clearly  the  case  in  this  dream,  where  the  crazy- 
looking  engine  and  cars  represent  the  appearance  of 
the  expected  disease.  But  the  functional-organic  dis- 
tinction, which  was  so  much  in  the  mind  of  the  patient 
at  this  time,  is  revealed  by  the  dream-fact  that  though 
the  cars  are  running  across  the  tracks,  the  wheels  in 
every  case  are  properly  and  normally  on  the  rails,  i.e., 
though  the  patient's  mental  life  might  be  running  crazy- 
like and  cross-wise,  as  it  were,  fundamentally  every- 
thing was  really  running  on  the  right  tracks. 

At  a  considerably  later  time  than  this,  when  N 

was  making  very  fair  progress  toward  recovery,  he 
worried  much  because  he  did  not  as  yet  seem  to  avoid 
certain  phobias  without  special  distraction  being 
brought  to  bear.  One  day  in  discussing  this  situation, 
the  physician  in  a  most  casual  way  remarked,  "  So 
then,  you  think  you'd  be  all  right  if  j'ou  could  only 
take  a  three-ring  circus  along  with  you?"  Though 
a  friendly  jest,  the  remark  made  a  deep  impression  on 


90  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

N and  the  next  morning  he  reported  the  following 

dream : 

47.  I  am  vaguely  moving  about  in  the  lower  rooms  ai, 
home  when  a  very  blusterous  brass  band,  seeming  to  be  a 
part  of  a  circus  which  is  in  town,  comes  up  the  street  by 
the  L.  church.  The  major,  a  dark,  heavy-browed,  slightly- 
stooped,  villainous  looking  man  in  dark  plain  clothes,  boldly 
leads  his  players  up  onto  the  front  porch.  I  tolerate  the 
noise  for  a  short  time,  but  at  length,  becoming  rather  in- 
censed, I  go  out  to  tell  the  major  to  quit.  He  declines, 
however,  and  the  disturbance  continues.  I  then  ask  L.  H. 
C,  who  appears  on  the  steps  below  me,  to  go  across  to  Mr. 
T.'s  and  get  Mr,  A.,  the  constable.  L.  H.  C,  appears  very 
reluctant  or  stupid,  but  finally  I  see  him  going  up  Mr,  T.'s 
driveway.  Mr,  A.,  strong  and  robust,  and  looking  espe- 
cially clear  and  rosy  of  cheek,  presently  strides  across  the 
street,  comes  onto  the  porch,  steps  into  the  midst  of  the 
bandmen,  and  orders  the  major  to  stop,  threatening  arrest 
if  he  does  not.  .  .  .  Awaken. 

We  note  here  that  the  "  three-ring  circus  "  has  been 

much  in  N 's  mind,  though  only  its  band  appears 

in  the  dream.     N tolerates  the  noisy  distraction 

for  some  time,  but  at  length  he  summons  his  courage 
and  demands  of  himself  that  it  must  cease;  he  realizes 
that  he  must  do  without  it.  The  symbolism  of  L.  H.  C. 
is  irrelevant  to  our  present  discussion,  but  Mr.  A.  is 
the  symbol  of  returning  health  and  strength,  and  it  is 
these  that  will  finally  dispense  the  need  of  distraction. 

Dream  10  is  thoroughly  representative  of  the  longer 
type  of  "  review  "  dream : 

10.  I  am  in  the  upstairs  hallway  at  home,  though  a  room 
near  by  seems  like  one  of  aunt  N.'s  (childhood  associ- 
ate). With  me  are  several  rugged  men  dressed  chiefly  in 
khaki.  All  are  armed,  some  with  rifles,  some  with  revolv- 
ers; I  have  a  revolver.     It  seems  that  I  have  just  entered, 


THE  CASE  OF  N 91 

seeking  protection,  and  one  or  two  of  the  men  are  show- 
ing me  how  to  use  my  firearm.  It  soon  develops  that 
some  ruffians  are  coming  up  the  stairs  to  attack  us,  and 
two  or  three  men,  in  blue  shirts,  appear  at  the  head  of  the 
stairs.  Great  confusion,  and  both  sides  open  fire;  general 
rough-and-tumble  with  ruffians  mostly  on  top.  One  of  them 
seizes  and  makes  me  prisoner  after  a  short  struggle.  I  am 
much  surprised,  however,  that  he  does  not  kill  me,  and 
he  takes  away  my  revolver  only  to  return  it  immediately. 
The  struggle  about  me  continues,  but  my  defenders  are  giv- 
ing in  one  by  one  to  the  ruffians  as  I  did.  They,  too,  are 
well  treated  as  they  surrender,  but  I  am  still  suspicious  that 
execution  or  severe  punishment  yet  awaits  us.  My  captor, 
however,  talks  reassuringly;  and  presently,  as  I  look  into 
the  chamber  of  ray  revolver,  I  note  that  the  unused  car- 
tridges are  still  there.  I  say  to  myself:  "  Well,  he  trusts 
me."  .  .  .  Vague  interval.  ...  I  am  looking  down  upon  a 
floor  or  table  entirely  covered  by  an  immense  birthday  cake 
with  a  plain  brownish  frosting.  As  I  look,  there  glide 
across  it,  in  subdued  ball-room  light,  a  number  of  miniature 
dancers  in  bright  colonial  costume.     Awaken. 

We  find  here  in  a  way  a   complete  history   of  the 

case.     N secured   his   early   sex   knowledge    from 

rough  "  hired  men,"  factory  workers,  etc.  (rugged  men 
dressed  in  khaki).  The  revolver  is  symbolic  of  the 
sex  organs.  Observing  the  various  manifestations  of 
sex  life,  N ■  had  gone  to  such  men  for  "  protec- 
tion," i.e.,  knowledge  of  their  meaning  and  control. 
The  ruffians  signify  sex  desire  and  satisfaction,  prob- 
ably with  especial  reference  to  masturbation.  The 
two  or  three  men  in  blue  shirts  (note  the  association 
of  blue  with  melancholy)  may  signify  the  two  or  three 
years  of  masturbation.  The  general  rough-and-tum- 
ble is  clearly  the  masturbation  conflict.  N suc- 
cumbs (made  prisoner)  yet  he  finds  he  has  not  been 
brought  to  either  death  or  dire  ruin.  He  still  has 
sexual  power   (revolver   returned).      It  has   in   a  way 


92  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

been  returned  by  Dr.  R ,  who  has  informed  him 

that  he  is  perfectly  all  right,  after  he  had  long  con- 
sidered  himself   as    probably    impotent.     N 's    old 

knowledge,  however,  is  more  or  less  persistent  (strug- 
gle  continues)    and   N still  has   some   misgivings 

(still  suspicious   of  execution   or   severe  punishment). 

There  are  then  further  reassurances  from  Dr.  R , 

and  N confirms  his  sexual  power  by  self-examina- 
tion. (Captor  talks  reassuringly;  looks  into  chamber 
of  revolver  and  notes  that  unused  cartridges  are  still 
there.)  The  final  "happy  ending"  scene,  in  view  of 
some  of  the  discussion  of  the  time,  appears  to  be  a 
general  symbolism  of  marriage.  N feels  that  mar- 
riage now  will  be  safe  and  desirable,  having  been  put 
into  a  much  more  favorable  light  after  recent  sex  re- 
education. 

Perhaps  the  most  elaborate  symbolism  of  review  and 
treatment  is  to  be  found  in  Dream  19. 

19.  As  I  am  passing  through  the  lower  barn  at  home, 
an  immense  black  rat  runs  across  the  floor  in  front  of  me, 
and  disappears  in  a  stall  at  my  right.  I  seize  a  handy 
stick,  and  dig  for  a  moment  among  the  cracks  of  the  stall; 
but  I  soon  decide  this  effort  futile,  thinking  it  better  to 
hunt  systematically  for  the  main  entrance  to  the  rat's  hole. 
Presently  I  find  a  large  hole  in  the  cinder  driveway  just 
outside  the  barn  doorway.  I  poke  around  in  this  with  my 
stick  and  succeed  in  dislodging  the  rat,  but,  though  I  fre- 
quently hit  him  as  he  dodges  about  the  barn  floor,  my  stick 
proves  too  light  to  inflict  damage.  Now  thoroughly 
aroused,  I  take  from  its  place  on  the  wall  a  curious  heavy 
long-handled  tool  having  two  ugly  iron  prongs  resembling 
a  large  saw-tooth  ice  chip.  With  this,  I  dig  viciously  into 
the  rat  hole,  and  can  feel  that  I  hit  its  lodger  once  or 
twice.  Suddenly  for  some  reason  I  stand  up  and  turn 
about,  seeing  directly  back  of  me  a  cave-in  in  the  drive- 
way, with  the  soil  at  its  bottom  heaving  and  disturbed  as 


THE  CASE  OF  N 93 

if  alive,  and  with  several  rats'  tails  projecting  from  it. 
Into  the  midst  of  this  turmoil  I  plunge  my  iron  prongs  time 
and  time  again  until  everything  is  quiet.  I  stoop  down  to 
see  if  I  surely  killed  the  large  rat,  and  decide  that  a  cer- 
tain larger  lump  that  I  speared  in  one  of  my  first  plunges 
accounts  for  him.  I  am  still  anxious  to  know,  however,  how 
many  rats  I  killed  in  all,  and  am  standing  perplexed  when 
a  voice  near  by  says:  "Count  the  tails!"  I  count  the 
tails  and  find  ten.  Both  the  "  voice  "  and  myself  are  sat- 
isfied that  these  ten  are  all  that  were  in  the  nest.  I  step 
away  mildly  pleased  at  my  "  kill,"  but  I  feel  impelled  to 
go  back  for  a  final  look  —  possibly  still  doubtful  about  the 
ten.     Awaken. 

The  general  stable  setting  is  of  course  significant  of 
the  horse-sex  complex.  The  black  rat,  through  the 
traditional  reference  to  "  rats  in  a  garret  "  in  mental 
disturbances,    symbolizes    the    neurosis.     The    neurosis 

appears,  N takes  what  amateur  medical  knowledge 

he  has  at  hand  to  combat  it  (seizes  handy  stick)  ;  but 
-little  or  no  success  attends  this  first  effort.  The  sec- 
ond more  systematic  hunt  refers  to  the  early  unsatis- 
factory attempts  to  discover  the  neurosis  root  under 
the  physician's  guidance.  He  then  at  times  seems  to 
touch  upon  vital  points  in  the  neurosis,  but  is  as  yet 
able  to  inflict  only  slight  damage  (dislodges  rat,  fre- 
quently hits  him,  but  stick  too  light  to  inflict  damage). 
Physician  and  patient  at  about  this  time  evolved  what 
they  often  refer  to  as  the  "  double-barrelled  "  explana- 
tion of  the  neurosis,  and  which,  with  revision,  was 
finally  settled  upon  as  the  true  explanation  of  the 
case.  The  "  double "  element  has  reference  to  the 
parallel  working  childhood  horse-sex  conflict  and 
adolescent  masturbation  conflict,  which  we  have  dis- 
cussed in  an  earlier  section.  The  curious  ugly,  two- 
pronged   tool    symbolizes    this    "  double "    explanation 


94  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

which  soon  proves  a  formidable  weapon.  Further  pres- 
ence of  the  "  double "  element  is  emphasized  in  the 
situation  where  the  rat  is  hit  as  N digs  into  the  rat- 
hole  with  the  new  weapon ;  the  "  lodger  "  is  hit,  i.e.,  the 
recent  sex  worries  are  dissipated,  but  the  cave-in  so 
suddenly  appearing  indicates  that  beneath  these  newer 
worries  are  a  number  of  deep-seated  childhood  emo- 
tional experiences.  The  turmoil  signifies  the  general 
neurosis  conflict.  It  is  into  the  midst  of  this  turmoil 
that  the  "  double-barrelled  "  explanation  is  vigorously 
applied  again  and  again  (plunging  of  the  prongs  time 

and  time  again).     That  N feels  that  the  neurosis 

root  is  killed,  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  in  the  dream, 
the  large  rat  is  quickly  and  surely  accounted  for. 
The  patient  is,  however,  still  uncertain  as  to  whether 
all  causative  elements  have  been  eliminated  (anxious  to 
know   how   many    rats    are   killed,    stands    perplexed). 

It  is  perhaps  Dr.  R who  shouts  "  Count  the  tails !  " 

The  fact  that  ten  tails  are  counted  is  very  interesting 
in  light  of  discussion  preceding  the  dream,  in  which  the 
"  double  "-explanation  had  been  summarized  in  the 
form  of  ten  chief  points.     There  is  still  some  element 

of  doubt  at  the  close  of  the  dream.     N had  not  by 

this  time  been  fully  convinced  of  the  validity  of  the 
"  double  "-explanation. 

N made  no  attempt  to  conceal  unfavorable  de- 
velopments, so  certain  dreams  of  despondent  import 
served  as  no  direct  warning;  but  had  he  attempted  to 
conceal  his  thought  and  tried  to  nurse  grievances  in 
silence,  dreams  of  this  type  might  well  have  given  the 
physician  invaluable  aid.  No.  23  is  representative  of 
the  "  unfavorable  "  dreams : 


THE  CASE  OF  N 95 


PATIENT 

23.  I  am  leaning  out  of  one  of  the  back  barn  windows, 
looking  down  particularly  at  the  small  dirt  area  (used 
in  summer  for  garden  truck)  lying  between  the  barn  and 
the  concrete  garden  wall.  There  is  a  warm  spring  rain, 
and  the  ground  everywhere  is  very  wet,  while  into  the  area 
several  small  streams  are  running  from  the  driveway  and 
eaves.  I  am  attracted  especially  by  a  stream  running 
from  the  driveway  which  has  broken  through  a  cinder  dike 
I  made  some  time  ago.  I  am  rather  disturbed  by  this  break, 
but  looking  at  the  regular  channel,  I  see  it  to  be  completely 
blocked  by  silt,  and  I  reflect  that  it  is  better  for  the  water 
to  go  through  the  break  than  to  wash  down  over  the  steps 
near  by  into  the  garden,  as  it  would  in  the  clogged  chan- 
nel. I  then  experience  a  peculiar  vague  feeling  about  the 
immensity  of  the  sky,  and  I  reflect  rather  poetically  on  the 
steady  warm  spring  rain.     Awaken. 

Gardening  had  long  been  a  hobby  in  which  the 
patient  took  great  pride.  In  practically  every  in- 
stance where  discouragement  was  to  be  symbolized  in 
a  dream,  we  find  some  garden  or  hillside  lawn  badly 
gullied  or  destroyed  in  some  way  by  storm.  After 
one  particularly  discouraging  experience  with  phobias, 
for  example,  the  patient's  very  choice  fernery,  in  his 
home  garden  appeared  in  a  dream  to  have  been  washed 
away  and  buried  in  heavy  mud.  Dream  29  occurred 
after  a  similarly  discouraging  experience,  taking  place, 
however,  after  some  degree  of  cure  had  been  attained, 
and  after  N was  becoming  in  general  more  hope- 
ful and  optimistic.  The  barn  setting,  so  usual,  is 
significant  of  the  horse-sex  complex.  Here,  however, 
we  do  not  find  the  entire  garden  involved.  Instead,  the 
garden  proper  (symbolizing  general  nervous  and  bodily 
health)  seems  to  be  unaffected,  i.e.,  general  health  has 
now  become  quite  satisfactory.     But  the  recent  phobic 


96  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

experience  has  centered  attention  on  one  relatively 
small  phase  of  the  case  (small  truck  area).  The  break 
in  the  dike  refers  directly  to  the  phobic  experience. 
N had  thought  he  had  erected  sufficient  psycho- 
logical barriers  to  overcome  such  an  attack.  The  un- 
expected attack  (break)  was  naturally  disturbing,  but 
as  N reflects  further,  he  concludes  that  it  is  per- 
haps better  to  confine  the  trouble  to  this  one  symptom, 
rather  than  to  have  it  spread  out  more  generally, 
though  perhaps  less  intensively  (better  for  water  to 
go  through  break  than  to  wash  down  steps  near  by  and 
injure  the  main  garden).  In  the  end,  optimism  tri- 
umphs. The  warm  spring  rain,  though  responsible  for 
the  streams  to  the  break  in  the  dike,  apparently  sym- 
bolizes patience  and  hope.  N is  still  cheerful  de- 
spite the  unexpected  phobic  experience. 

It  would  be  possible  to  go  into  almost  limitless  de- 
tail regarding  the  new  symbolism  developing  with  each 
new  development  in  the  case,  and  the  characteristic 
symbolism  associated  with  each  of  the  many  lesser  fam- 
ily and  social  worries,  but  the  selection  we  have  made 
would  seem  to  have  been  made  thoroughly  representa- 
tive simply  by  the  addition  of  one  more  typical  dream: 

29.  I  am  vaguely  walking  with  some  one  along  a  macad- 
amized highway.  There  is  some  confused  talk,  but  my 
chief  interest  is  in  the  roadside,  which  has  been  freshly 
trimmed  and  cleared  of  brush.  On  either  side  is  an  irreg- 
ular row  of  tall  trees,  in  summer  foliage,  with  large  trunks 
standing  out  clearly  against  sky  or  woodland  background, 
as  the  case  may  be.  .  .  .  Interval.  ...  I  am  again  on  this 
highway,  but  alone ;  though  at  first  a  little  confused,  appre- 
hensive of  a  nervous  attack,  I  soon  make  a  brave  start 
ahead.  .  .  . 

Here  we  find  N in  his  dream  literally  walking 


THE  CASE  OF  N 97 

on  the  "  road  to  recovery."     The  old  ugly  brush,  filled 

with  phobic  terrors,  has  been  cleared  and  N walks 

confidently  along  with  some  companion  (the  physician). 
Presently  he  takes  the  same  route  alone;  he  is  at  first 
slightly  fearful,  but  soon  starts  bravely  ahead.  The 
literal  cleared  road  to  recovery  appears  several  times 
in  later  dreams,  but  the  same  growing  self-confidence, 
and  optimism  are  expressed  also  by  dreams  in  Avhich 

N finds  himself  walking  vigorously  on  the  street, 

much  pleased  with  himself,  or,  again,  greeting  a  robust, 
rosy-faced  young  man  (symbolizing  his  recovered  self) 
back  from  a  long  journey.  There  appears  an  occa- 
sional discouraging  dream  of  the  garden  type,  but  the 
last  dreams  in  the  systematic  collection  (dated  March, 
1916)  reflect  a  more  and  more  cheerful  frame  of  mind. 
Several  dreams  selected  more  or  less  at  random  a  few 
weeks  later,  indicate  the  symbolism  centered  about  the 
neurosis  to  be  completely  broken  up,  and  the  only 
"  problems  "  symboHzed  those  of  a  passing  nature  and 
characteristic  only  of  commonplace,  unneurotic  daily 
life. 


CHAPTER  V 

A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA 

Pawlow's  experiments  in  the  conditioned  salivary 
reflex  through  the  work  of  Yerkes  and  others  have 
long  been  known  in  this  country.  Prince  ^  refers  to 
this  and  the  linking  of  the  psychological  to  the  physio- 
logical as  follows: 

"  These  experiments  of  Pawlow  show  the  possibility  of 
linking  a  physiological  process  to  a  psychological  process 
by  education  and  through  the  conservation  of  the  associa- 
tion reproducing  the  physiological  process  as  an  act  of  un- 
conscious memory."  He  quotes  from  Pawlow:  "All  the 
phenomena  of  adaptation  which  we  saw  in  the  salivary 
glands  under  physiological  conditions  such  as  the  introduc- 
tion of  stimulating  substances  into  the  buccal  cavity  reap- 
peared in  exactly  the  same  manner  under  the  influence  of 
psychological  conditions,  i.  e.  by  drawing  attention  to  the 
substances  in  question."  Prince  says,  "  Pictorial  images 
or  ideas  of  the  substances  had  become  associated  with  the 
specific  salivary  reaction  and  conserved  as  a  neuroo-ram. 
The  stimuli  produced  psycho-physiological  memory.  Any- 
thing associated  psychologically  with  the  objects  which 
physiologically  excited  the  saliva  may  act  as  stimuli.  Any 
sensory  stimuli  may  be  educated." 

Very  little  has  been  done  in  this  country  with  the 
conditioned  motor  reflex  and  the  Russian  is  untrans- 
lated and  inaccessible.     J.  B.  Watson  says :  ^ 

1  The    Unconscious,  Morton  Prince,  pp.  139-140. 

2  J.  B.  Watson,  Place  of  Conditioned  Reflex  in  Psychology, 
Paychological  Review,  March,  1916. 

98 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  99 

I  wish  I  had  time  to  develop  the  view  that  the  concept 
of  the  conditioned  reflex  can  be  used  as  an  explanatory 
principle  in  the  psychology  of  hysteria  and  the  various 
"  tics  "  which  appear  in  so-called  normal  individuals.  It 
seems  to  me  that  hysterical  motor  manifestations  can  be 
looked  upon  as  conditioned  reflexes.  This  would  give  a 
raison  d'etre  which  has  hitherto  been  hazy. 

He  speaks  of  the  well  known  reaction  of  a  person 
recently  operated  upon  who,  for  a  long  time,  will  re- 
act to  slight  movements  of  the  body  or  attempts  to 
touch  the  wound  as  if  the  noxious  stimuli  attendant 
upon  the  operation  were  still  present.  The  thunder 
clap  and  lightning  flash  have  been  so  long  associated 
that  the  flash  may  produce  the  same  eff^ect  that  the 
thunder  clap  originally  did. 

The  following  case,  aside  from  being  of  great  interest 
as  a  typical  hysteria  showing  fundamental  sex  traumas 
but  not  conforming  to  Freud's  dictum,  is  thought  to 
show  some  of  the  relations  of  conditioned  motor  reflex 
to  hysterical  motor  reaction.  Be  it  understood  that  I 
have  but  a  cursory  knowledge  of  these  matters  derived 
from  reading  Sherrington's  Integrative  Action  of  the 
Nervous  System,  a  summary  of  Pawlow's  work  and  Wat- 
son's paper.  My  work  with  the  neuroses  has  been 
clinical.  I  do  not  assume  that  my  inferences  are  cor- 
rect but  ask  if  they  may  not  be.  I  am  remote  from 
those  who  know,  and  I  wish  criticism  and  information. 

The  patient  is  a  young  woman  of  twenty-two,  always 
fairly  robust  physically.  When  she  broke  down  she 
was  in  college,  working  her  way  and  standing  high  in 
her  class.  For  several  years  when  unwell  she  has  had 
a  tendency  to  uncontrollable  laughter.  She  has  had 
frequent  headaches  and  these  were  always  severe  dur- 
ing menstruation.     The  laughing  spells   were  usually 


100  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

of  short  duration  but  sometimes  lasted  a  whole  eve- 
ning. During  the  past  year  she  has  had  several  cry- 
ing spells  which  terminated  in  severe  sick  headaches. 
About  six  months  ago  she  had  two  laughing  spells  in 
one  week.  Four  weeks  later,  after  witnessing  the  nerv- 
ous break-down  of  one  of  her  relatives,  she  had  a 
sleepless  night  and  trembled  all  over  with  a  sort  of 
nervous  chill.  One  week  later  she  went  to  church  with 
a  friend.  She  had  a  severe  headache,  felt  cold  and 
near  the  end  of  the  service  fainted  and  had  to  be  helped 
from  the  church.  One  leg  felt  weak,  and  she  had  a 
fear  of  infantile  paralysis.  The  doctors  reassured  her, 
saying  that  she  was  working  too  hard,  and  sent  her  to 
the  hospital  for  a  few  days.  The  first  day  she  felt 
numb,  having  a  terrible  headache  and  a  slight  paralysis 
of  the  jaw  which  troubled  her  a  great  deal.  She  had 
no  solid  food  for  two  days  and  later  when  she  tried  to 
chew  meat  had  great  difficulty  in  doing  so.  On  the 
third  day  of  her  stay  at  the  hospital,  she  began  to 
laugh  and  kept  it  up  practically  continually  for  one 
whole  day  and  at  frequent  intervals  for  another.  Nar- 
cotics finally  controlled  this,  and  she  went  to  sleep ; 
although  it  was  not  a  restful  sleep,  and  she  was  weak 
and  exhausted. 

Two  days  later  she  got  up  and,  though  still  weak, 
went  back  to  her  work  the  following  day.  She  at- 
tended classes,  but,  on  the  advice  of  her  physician,  did 
no  studying.  She  found  that  she  could  not  concentrate 
and  was  obliged  to  spend  most  of  her  time  in  bed.  At 
the  end  of  a  week  she  had  another  attack  of  laughing 
and  screaming  which  lasted  two  days  and  one  night. 
This  was  relieved  by  sedatives,  and  broken  sleep  fol- 
lowed for  one  night.  The  next  morning  she  began  to 
have    convulsive    attacks   which   occurred    at    frequent 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  101 

intervals,  and  the  following  day  she  was  sent  home  by 
the  college  doctors  for  a  year's  rest.  At  home  she  was 
kept  very  quiet  and  did  nothing  but  rest.  For  the 
first  two  or  three  weeks,  she  had  laughing  or  convul- 
sive attacks  practically  every  day,  and  they  were  par- 
ticularly bad  at  the  menstrual  period.  They  were  not 
so  frequent  for  the  next  three  weeks,  but  came  on 
when  she  was  in  the  least  excited.  The  most  severe 
attack  of  all  came  as  the  result  of  attending  a  church 
function,  and  consisted  of  laughing,  kicking,  scream- 
ing, and  convulsive  movements.  The  following  week 
she  had  several  attacks.  She  then  came  under  my 
care.  She  had  been  given  mineral  oil  and  nux  vomica 
for  regular  medicine  and  told  to  live  out  of  doors  as 
far  as  possible.  She  was  to  encourage  complete  re- 
laxation by  doing  no  hard  work  or  study,  and  to  go 
to  bed  (out  of  doors)  directly  after  supper.  She  was 
asked  no  questions  of  a  private  nature. 

For  ten  days  after  arriving  she  had  minor  convul- 
sive attacks,  diminishing  in  severity,  and  two  or  three 
very  slight  laughing  spells.  Any  sudden  noise  or  any- 
thing startling,  like  the  telephone  bell,  would  cause 
her  to  almost  spring  from  her  chair,  and  she  would  feel 
weak  and  shaky  afterwards.  After  two  weeks  the 
laughing  and  convulsive  attacks  and  the  excessive  re- 
action to  slight  noises  and  confusion  ceased.  With  one 
or  two  slight  exceptions,  there  were  no  attacks  for 
three  weeks,  even  at  the  menstrual  period.  Then  when 
left  alone  to  assume  the  cares  of  the  household,  she  had 
eight  attacks  in  twenty-four  hours,  and  one  rather  se- 
vere convulsive  and  fainting  attack.  For  two  nights 
she  did  not  sleep  much,  but  for  the  next  two  days  she 
was  comparatively  well.  She  was  then  disturbed  by  a 
patient,  and  had  a  sleepless  night  and  two  convulsive 


102  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

attacks  the  following  day.     For  the  next   few  weeks 
with  only  two  or  three  shght  attacks,  she  slept  six  to 
eight  hours  a  night,  ate  well,  and  gained  seven  pounds 
in  eight  weeks.     On   the  physician's   advice,  she  went 
to  several  trying  public  functions,  beginning  two  weeks 
after  her  arrival.     When  she  had  been  here  three  weeks, 
she  began  rehearsing  for  an  amateur  opera  in  which 
she  took  part  several  weeks  later.     She  sat  up  reading 
ordinary  novels  with  the  family  until  eleven  or  twelve 
o'clock   each   night,   and   after  two   weeks   she  worked 
five  or  six  hours  a  day  at  ordinary  housework.     She 
went  to  walk  only  two  or  three  times  a  week,  and  slept 
indoors,  although  she  usually  had  the  window  raised. 
She  saw  children  have  epileptic  fits  at  a  hospital  with- 
out disturbance,  and  an  uncongenial  man  showed  ob- 
noxious attentions  without  causing  attacks.     She  had 
no  medicine  whatever.     At  the  last  menstruation,  she 
had  severe  pain  but  absolutely  no  nervous  symptoms. 
Her    original    pinched    and    anxious    expression    has 
changed  to  an  open  and  cheerful  countenance.     Gloom 
and  pessimism,  leading  to  a  desire  for  an  early  demise 
(only  the  timely  entrance  of  the  nurse  prevented  her 
trying  to  take  poison  at  the  hospital)  have  been  en- 
tirely superseded  by  content  and  optimism.     This  may 
seem  early  to  say  so,  but  I  feel  as  confident  that  this 
patient  is  practically  well,  and  will  indefinitely  remain 
so,  as  far  as  any  nervous  trouble  is  concerned,  as  I 
shall  be  when   a  year  or  two  of  perfect  health  have 
demonstrated   the   fact.     So   much  for   the   superficial 
aspects  of  the  case;  now  let  us  deal  with  the  less  con- 
spicuous and  more  intangible  elements. 

Twenty-four  hours  after  her  arrival,  the  physician 
asked  for  a  history  of  her  trouble.  This  was  readily 
given,  and  then  he  began  to  ask  about  her  sex  life.     She 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  lOS 

answered  frankly,  although  reserving  the  most  impor- 
tant incidents  for  some  days.  At  first  she  was  fright- 
ened and  had  one  sleepless  night,  for  she  dreaded  re- 
vealing her  entire  sexual  autobiography.  A  case  read 
her  of  another  young  woman  made  her  feel  that  she 
was  not  alone  in  her  troubles,  and  made  her  feel  free 
to  proceed.  None  of  the  history  revealed  in  the  first 
three  weeks  was  ever,  for  any  length  of  time,  absent 
from  consciousness.  The  eight  or  nine  incidents  told 
at  a  later  seance  had  been  repressed  or  forgotten  and 
they  all  came  to  the  surface  the  same  night,  while  she 
was  awake,  and  were  told  to  the  physician  the  next  day. 
Several  other  incidents  came  out  later  when  something 
in  the  conversation  suggested  them. 

When  six  years  of  age,  an  older  girl  told  her  of  a 
girl  in  town  who  was  in  trouble,  and  she  became  curious 
about  the  origin  of  children.  She  asked  her  mother, 
who  said  that  they  came  from  heaven.  This  statement, 
presumably  true,  in  the  abstract,  gave  little  relief  to 
her  curiosity.  The  older  girl  (aged  ten)  told  her  of  a 
boy  asking  her  for  sexual  intercourse.  She  explained 
the  process  and  said  that  she  was  going  to  allow  it 
sometime.  This  girl  obtained  her  information  from 
another  girl  in  the  community  who  had  regular  sexual 
relations  with  her  brothers.  These  girls  became 
"  fast."  When  eight  the  patient  was  follov/ed  by  three 
boj's  who  asked  her  if  she  and  her  brother  had  sexual 
intercourse,  and  she  denied  it.  They  then  asked  her 
for  it,  not  euphemistically,  as  I  have  expressed  it,  and 
she  was  frightened ;  but  did  not  know  whether  it  was 
right  or  wrong.  They  chased  her  but  she  escaped. 
She  told  her  mother,  who  was  angry,  and  had  the 
teacher  punish  the  boys.  They  never  acted  improp- 
erly again  and  were  good  friends  of  hers  later. 


104  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

At  ten  she  talked  of  sex  with  a  friend  who  was 
twelve,  and  learned  masturbation.  They  practiced 
this  mutually  about  once  in  three  months,  and  once 
they  tried  Lesbianism,  at  the  older  girl's  suggestion. 
This  girl  became  a  worthy  woman.  At  this  time  there 
was  secretiveness  but  no  shame.  A  year  or  so  later, 
she  and  another  girl  friend  of  her  own  age  (twelve) 
talked  of  sex.  This  girl  found  a  syringe  in  the  bath- 
room with  directions  for  a  vaginal  douche.  They  were 
curious  and  looked  up  the  terms  in  the  dictionary,  also 
they  found  an  old  medical  book  and  tried  to  read  it. 
They  experimented  with  their  fingers  and  found  the 
vaginal  opening.  However,  there  was  little  sensation 
produced  by  the  finger  in  the  vagina,  so  they  returned 
to  masturbation  by  titillation  of  the  clitoris.  She 
does  not  know  how  this  girl  turned  out.  After  puberty 
there  was  another  period  of  vaginal  experimentation, 
but  no  orgasm  was  produced  in  this  way. 

There  was  no  masturbation  by  herself  up  to  the  time 
of  her  first  menstruation,  which  occurred  at  thirteen. 
She  had  not  been  told  about  this,  and  when  it  occurred 
she  was  greatly  frightened.  She  told  her  mother,  who 
said  that  it  was  only  something  that  she  would  have 
all  her  life.  She  told  her  what  to  do  and  said  she 
meant  to  have  told  her  before.  She  had  strong  erotic 
feelings  at  this  time,  but  she  repressed  them  for  some 
months.  They  grew  stronger,  and  after  three  or  four 
months  she  began  to  masturbate  two  or  three  times  at 
the  menstrual  period  and  not  at  all  between.  At 
thirteen  she  went  to  a  country  school  where  she  was 
ahead  of  the  others,  although  they  were  much  older 
than  she.  The  big  boys  told  "  smutty  "  stories  to  all 
the  pupils,  and  copies  of  these  were  even  passed  around. 
One  boy  of  nineteen  was  very  attentive  to  her,  and  after 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  105 

a  time  began  hugging  and  kissing  her  whenever  oppor- 
tunity offered.  He  was  secretive  about  this,  though 
the  other  boys  openly  hugged  and  kissed  the  girls. 
Finally  he  asked  her  for  intercourse  and  she  refused, 
though  he  was  alone  with  her  for  a  whole  evening  and 
aroused  her  to  the  highest  pitch  of  erotic  feeling.  He 
begged  and  pleaded,  but  she  would  not  give  in,  for  some 
instinct  kept  her  from  it,  though  she  thought  perhaps 
it  might  be  all  right.  After  two  months  of  repeated 
urgings  one  day,  when  they  were  alone  in  the  church 
and  he  had  fondled  her  breasts  and  felt  of  her  genitals 
until  she  was  highly  excited,  she  consented.  He  made 
the  attempt  but  neither  then  nor  at  any  of  his  subse- 
quent attempts  during  the  next  year  and  a  half  did 
he  obtain  any  penetration,  though  he  hurt  her  ex- 
cruciatingly, and  she  was  sore  from  the  pressure.  He 
did  not  obtain  an  orgasm  at  this  time,  but  did  at  a 
later  attempt.  She  masturbated  that  night  and  after 
other  experiences  of  this  nature,  obtaining  relief,  but 
not  a  complete  orgasm.  Immediately  after  this  relief 
she  could  go  to  sleep.  One  month  she  skipped  men- 
struation and  was  greatly  worried  for  fear  that  she 
was  pregnant. 

The  next  year  she  went  away  to  school  in  another 
place  and  had  a  boy  friend  of  about  her  own  age. 
They  were  considerably  attached  to  each  other,  and  this 
relationship  was  perfectly  correct  in  all  respects. 
Then  a  bad  girl  in  the  school  broke  up  this  attachment, 
and  the  first  boy  again  became  attentive  and  their 
former  relations  were  resumed.  Altogether  he  at- 
tempted intercourse  with  her  five  or  six  times.  He  al- 
ways excited  her  first  by  feeling  of  her  breasts  and 
genitals,  and  he  insisted  on  her  holding  and  manipu- 
lating his  penis.     Doing  this  excited  her  as  much  as 


106  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

what  he  did  to  her  but  she  felt  ashamed  and  disliked 
doing  it.  The  next  year  (she  was  now  fifteen)  she 
first  fully  realized  that  this  was  not  right  and  refused 
any  further  attentions  from  him.  At  the  final  inter- 
view she  returned  a  ring  and  repulsed  him,  though  he 
begged,  pleaded,  and  threatened. 

Ever  afterward  the  sight  or  thought  of  this  man 
disgusted  her.  He  was  a  slight  musician,  and  hearing, 
five  years  later,  selections  which  he  had  played  would 
throw  her  into  a  state  bordering  on  hysteria.  After 
realizing  what  she  had  been  doing,  she  began  to  worry 
and  condemn  herself  very  much.  She  found  that  this 
man  had  had  intercourse  or  attempts  at  it  with  no  less 
than  eight  other  girls  in  the  community.  She  sus- 
pected that  he  had  told  them  about  her,  as  he  had 
her  about  them.  She  thought  her  wrong-doing  such 
that  she  was  unfit  to  marry.  She  now  masturbated 
about  once  a  month  and  began  to  try  to  leave  it  off, 
which  she  was  finally  successful  in  doing  at  about 
eighteen.  Once  after  she  was  eighteen  she  gave  in  and 
masturbated  when  unbearable  erotic  feelings  were 
aroused  by  seeing  cats  copulate.  Three  or  four  months 
after  ending  relations  with  the  man  above,  another  man 
of  twenty-one  found  an  opportunity  to  put  his  arm 
around  her  and  his  hand  inside  her  dress  and  feel  of 
her  breasts,  remarking  that  they  were  nice  ones.  She 
instantly  repulsed  him  and  he  desisted.  This  stimu- 
lated her  erotic  feelings  tremendously,  but  she  was  dis- 
gusted and  would  not  yield  to  them.  On  one  other 
occasion,  when  she  was  alone  with  this  man,  he  started 
something  similar  and  she  was  much  frightened,  but 
some  one  interfered  and  nothing  occurred.  No  further 
incidents  of  this  nature  have  occurred  in  her  experience. 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  107 

These  affairs  served  to  make  her  dislike  boys  in  gen- 
eral. 

Three  years  later,  when  in  college,  in  company  with 
three  other  girls  she  saw  an  exhibitionist,  but  was  at 
some  distance  and  the  sight  did  not  make  a  very  deep 
impression.  Tliree  weeks  after  this,  she  and  another 
girl  came  suddenly  upon  another  exhibitionist  in  the 
woods.  They  were  almost  upon  this  man  when  he 
turned  and  faced  them,  holding  his  erect  penis  in  his 
hand.  She  took  in  at  a  glance  this  and  the  expression 
on  his  face,  which  was  that  of  intense  pleasure.  The 
girls,  greatly  frightened,  were  obliged  to  pass  directly 
by  him.  He  made  no  attempt  to  say  or  do  anything 
to  them.  They  were  greatly  excited  by  these  incidents 
and  talked  about  this  and  sexual  matters  in  general. 
One  girl  told  about  the  hymen  being  a  proof  of  vir- 
ginity. From  that  time  on,  the  patient  worried,  fear- 
ing that  her  h^^men  was  ruptured  by  the  man  referred 
to.  She  thought  she  ought  not  to  marry  and  that  if 
she  did  her  husband  would  discover  her  guilt  and  cast 
her  off.  She  thought  it  unfair  that  a  man  should  be 
able  to  learn  of  his  wife's  past,  and  she  not  of  his. 
Another  girl  said  that  intercourse  happened  when  the 
woman  was  asleep  and  therefore  she  had  no  control  over 
its  frequency.  This  also  troubled  the  patient,  though 
from  her  own  experience  she  did  not  believe  it.  From 
a  risque  storj^  which  she  heard,  she  got  the  idea  that  a 
cutting  operation  would  be  necessary  before  intercourse, 
should  she  marry. 

Soon  an  intimacy  sprang  up  with  a  young  man  who 
wrote  her  letters,  sent  her  flowers,  and  came  to  see  her. 
The  girls  thought  she  was  engaged,  and  she  herself  be- 
gan to  think  a  good  deal  about  it,  and  to  have  persistent 


108  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

erotic  feelings.  She  had  day-dreams  at  this  time  with 
erotic  feelings,  and  voluptuous  dreams  with  orgasms 
at  night.  Finally,  when  they  were  joking  her  about  her 
engagement,  she  masturbated  several  times  a  night  for 
several  nights.  Shortly  after  this,  she  learned  indi- 
rectly that  the  man  who  was  paying  her  attentions  was 
already  engaged.  She  then  became  disgusted  with  him 
and  developed  an  antipathy  toward  all  men,  and  has 
had  no  attachment  since.  She  still  feared  that  she  was 
unfit  for  marriage  and  a  fear  of  marriage  itself  grew  up. 
She  thought  that  a  cutting  operation  would  be  neces- 
sary on  the  marriage  night,  and  she  had  a  great  horror 
of  childbirth  because  she  thought  that  conception  oc- 
curred when  a  woman  was  asleep  and  that  she  must 
have  an  unlimited  number  of  children  simply  for  her 
husband's  sexual  gratification.  Then  her  experience 
with  the  first  man,  the  exhibitionists,  and  this  last  man 
who  had  deceived  her,  led  her  to  think  all  men  base. 
She  began  making  desperate  attempts  at  repression 
and  soon  stopped  masturbation.  During  the  last  two 
years,  she  has  had  occasional  day  dreams  (with  slight 
erotic  feelings)  of  her  future  work,  of  a  scientific  na- 
ture, with  a  man  who  was  also  a  scientist  and  who 
finally  fell  in  love  with  and  married  her.  There  was 
never  any  culmination  when  the  day-dreams  became 
erotic,  but  during  this  period  she  had  voluptuous 
dreams  once  in  two  or  three  months.  During  the  last 
three  months  she  has  had  one  voluptuous  dream  at  a 
menstrual  period. 

After  four  and  a  half  weeks'  residence,  she  had  a 
day  of  unusual  optimism.  The  next  day  she  had  the 
added  responsibility  referred  to  above  and,  as  already 
said,  for  two  days  was  nervous  with  hysterical  attacks. 
I  told  her  that  she  had  more  "  untold  tales  "  in  her 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  109 

conscious  or  unconscious  mind.  The  following  day, 
after  a  restless  night,  largely  given  to  self-catechism, 
she  related  the  following  additional  episodes  which  had 
been  either  repressed  or  forgotten.  These  had  not  en- 
tered her  mind  at  any  of  our  former  talks.  The  first 
thing  told  was  an  experience  of  the  last  day  or  two. 
A  young  man  patient,  by  his  manner  and  appearance, 
reminded  her  of  the  man  with  whom  she  had  the  early 
experiences.  She  felt  nervous  at  being  left  alone  in 
the  house  with  him  during  the  evening.  This  brought 
on  a  convulsive  attack  and  this  man  put  his  arm  about 
her  as  if  to  help  her.  She  immediately  had  slight 
erotic  feelings,  of  which  she  was  extremely  ashamed, 
and  her  old  attitude  of  self-condemnation  returned. 
This  undoubtedly  was  the  main  cause  of  the  frequent 
attacks  in  the  two  days  referred  to.  I  explained  that, 
since  this  man  resembled  the  one  with  whom  she  had 
had  the  former  experiences,  she  was  now  substituting 
him  for  that  one,  as  the  memories  of  the  former  were 
coming  to  the  surface,  and  that  it  was  not  at  all  in- 
dicative of  weakness  that  he  should  arouse  her  at  this 
time  as  the  other  had  done  previously.  The  things 
which  she  recalled  for  the  first  time  are  as  follows : 

(1)  When  six  or  seven  she  overheard  the  vulgar  ex- 
pression for  sexual  intercourse.  She  asked  her  mother 
about  it  and  was  told  that  it  was  a  bad  word  which  she 
must  never  repeat.  However,  the  word  persisted  in 
her  mind  and  always  troubled  her.  (2)  At  seven  she 
played  innocently  in  the  hay  with  a  boy  of  the  same 
age.  She  spoke  of  this  to  her  mother,  who  told  her 
not  to  do  anything  of  the  kind  again,  for  he  was  likely 
to  be  feeling  of  her.  This  aroused  her  curiosity.  (3) 
When  eight  she  looked  out  of  the  window  of  the  school- 
room and,  seeing  dogs  copulating,  remembered  a  girl 


110  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

who  was  said  to  have  had  intercourse  with  her  dog. 
At  this  moment  she  had  her  first  remembered  erotic 
feelings,  which  were  intense.  One  of  the  boys  who  had 
formerly  chased  her  also  saw  the  dogs  and  looked  up 
at  her  and  laughed.  She  was  ashamed  to  have  him 
know  that  she  was  watching  the  dogs.  This  picture 
recurred  with  great  vividness  for  some  time  and  now, 
after  it  has  been  long  forgotten,  it  is  as  vivid  as  when 
she  saw  it.  She  was  excited  at  the  sight  of  the  male 
genitals  and  later  that  year  she  was  excited  in  watch- 
ing a  bull.  (4)  At  the  age  of  thirteen,  she  and  a  girl 
of  fourteen  masturbated  mutually  several  times,  and 
once  they  indulged  in  Lesbianism.  Both  were  greatly 
excited.  (5)  When  rather  young  she  was  greatly  puz- 
zled at  seeing  a  girl  dip  her  dog  in  the  brook  to  make 
her  have  puppies.  (6)  One  of  her  playmates  lived 
near  a  young  married  couple,  and  once  she  saw  them  on 
the  bed  having  intercourse.  She  described  this  vividly 
to  her  friends.  They  knew  that  this  had  to  do  with 
getting  children  and  so  kept  track  of  this  woman  and 
found  that  she  had  a  baby  exactly  nine  months  from 
this  time.  (7)  At  ten  she  accidentally  came  upon  a 
man  urinating,  and  his  large  organ  aroused  her  curi- 
osity, but  gave  her  no  erotic  feelings. 

She  now  remembered,  or  was  willing  to  tell  more  de- 
tails of  her  experiences  with  the  boy  of  nineteen,  which 
seemed  to  her  more  shameful  than  any  of  the  others. 
On  the  occasion  when  he  first  attempted  intercourse 
with  her  in  the  church,  her  brother  had  been  hired  to 
leave  them,  but  he  suddenly  returned  and  caught  them 
in  "  medias  res."  She  was  ashamed  and  frightened 
and  made  spasmodic  efforts  to  get  away.  She  had  al- 
ready been  in  a  tense  condition  from  the  pain  of  the 
operation.     They  tried  to  make  him  promise  not  to 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  111 

tell,  and  then  went  home.  Before  long  the  brother  be- 
gan to  threaten  to  tell  on  them,  and  this  always  fright- 
ened her.  Whenever  she  and  this  man  were  together 
after  this  he  was  always  trying  to  find  out  what  was 
done,  joking  and  asking  questions.  As  a  result  of  his 
threats,  he  made  her  his  abject  slave  for  two  years. 
Then  one  night,  after  she  had  retired,  he  entered  her 
room  and,  after  some  altercation,  threatened  to  tell 
her  parents  of  what  she  had  done.  Then,  becoming 
excited  from  seeing  her  in  bed,  he  promised  never  to 
tell  of  anything  if  she  would  do  the  same  for  him  as 
she  had  done  for  the  other  man.  She,  though  excited 
by  this  proposition,  refused.  Somehow,  this  seemed 
worse  than  having  relations  with  the  other  man.  The 
brother  appeared  ashamed  and  left  the  room.  He 
never  mentioned  this  or  threatened  to  tell  of  her  again, 
but  always  teased  and  maltreated  her.  She  almost 
hated  him  for  this  and  his  persistent  telling  of 
"  smutty  "  or  suggestive  things  whenever  she  and  some 
other  man  were  together,  for  this  led  the  others  to  think 
that  they  could  make  improper  remarks  in  her  pres- 
ence. 

She  felt  very  badly  when  she  told  of  being  caught 
by  her  brother  and,  bursting  out  crying,  said  that  she 
was  not  fit  to  marry  a  decent  man.  She  seemed  re- 
lieved and  her  attacks  became  milder  and  less  frequent. 
That  night  she  slept  four  or  five  hours  and  the  next 
night  two  or  three.  Her  antipathy  toward  the  male 
sex  returned,  and  she  thought  that  even  if  she  ever 
did  have  a  husband  he  would  be  a  drunkard  or  as  bad. 
The  next  day  she  had  one  screaming  and  convulsive 
attack,  and  a  tendency  to  cry  without  tears  and  with- 
out reason.  We  had  a  long  talk  about  the  situation, 
trying  to  come  to  a  reasonable  estimate  of  the  respon- 


112  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

sibility,  if  any,  for  the  incidents  that  had  occurred 
in  her  sexual  life.  At  this  point  she  told,  for  the  first 
time,  though  I  have  mentioned  it  earlier,  what  seemed 
to  her  the  worst  thing  that  she  ever  did,  i.e.,  while  the 
man  was  fondling  her  breasts  and  clitoris,  he  insisted  on 
her  manipulating  his  penis.  This  she  had  done  un- 
willingly, and  with  great  shame  and  disgust  on  each 
occasion,  but  it  excited  her  greatly.  After  telling  this 
last  and,  as  she  thought,  worst  incident,  she  cried  and 
has  had  no  further  attacks  to  date,  four  weeks  later. 
This  completes  the  history  of  her  sex  experiences. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  this  history  was  given  rapidly 
and  that  the  principal  events  neither  had  been  repressed 
nor  forgotten.  No  psychoanalytic  sleight  of  hand  was 
necessary.  The  events  which  had  been  repressed  or 
forgotten  seemed  to  be  brought  to  the  surface  by  meet- 
ing the  man  who  reminded  her  of  her  early  experiences. 
Whether  her  attacks  at  this  time  were  the  result  of 
the  shock  of  being  reminded  of  this  man  or  were  caused 
by  the  emotion  attendant  upon  the  long  list  of  experi- 
ences which  were  near  the  surface  and  came  into  her 
consciousness  during  the  wakeful  night  is  an  open  ques- 
tion. I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  reading  of  cases  of  hys- 
teria where  it  has  been  such  a  simple  matter  to  obtain  the 
basic  facts  as  it  has  been  in  this,  though  it  is  hardly 
different  from  numerous  cases  which  I  have  treated. 
These  memories  were  largely  conscious  and  troubled 
her  so  constantly  that  life  was  not  worth  living.  She 
was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  these  trouble- 
some memories  were  the  cause  of  her  hysterical  condi- 
tion. I  hardly  need  say  that  I  continue  to  disagree 
with  Freud  and  others  who  say  that  hysteria  is  always 
determined  by  repressed  or  forgotten  experiences  of 
childhood.     It  is  undoubtedly  caused  by  these  experi- 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  113 

ences ;  but,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  they  often  are 
not  an  unconscious  but  a  constant  conscious  menace 
to  the  integrity  of  the  individual  psyche. 

The  treatment  was  almost  too  simple  to  mention  and 
was  about  the  same  as  in  other  cases  which  I  have  de- 
scribed in  other  places.  I  was  somewhat  acquainted 
with  this  young  lady  and  no  preamble  was  necessary. 
I  went  over  her  general  symptoms  and  history  at  the 
first  sitting  and  at  the  next  asked  her  if  she  had  ever 
been  frightened  or  had  any  sexual  shocks.  When  she 
was  a  little  hesitant,  I  told  her  that  the  chances  were 
ninety-nine  to  one  that  her  trouble  was  caused  by  mem- 
ories of  sex  experiences  which  she  thought  were  wrong, 
though  they  were  not  necessarily  so,  and  we  might  as 
well  get  down  to  business  to  begin  with.  She  at  once 
told  me  of  her  auto-erotic  activities,  of  being  chased  by 
the  little  boys,  and  similar  experiences.  As  soon  as 
she  began  to  tell  things,  I  began  to  try  to  explain  them. 
I  told  her  that  masturbation  was  practically  universal 
with  both  young  men  and  young  women  and,  in  any 
well-born  individual,  the  only  harm  that  ever  came 
from  it  was  from  the  worry  about  it.  I  convinced  her 
that,  if  at  times  the  sex  impulse  is  irresistible,  there  is 
no  moral  issue  involved  in  its  moderate  relief,  provided 
no  one  else  is  involved.  She  agreed  with  me  that  it  was 
irresistible  at  times  in  her  case;  then,  of  course,  it  was 
the  only  legitimate  mode  of  relief.  When  this  seemed 
justifiable  she  was  immediately  relieved  of  a  great  load. 

She  was  more  ashamed  of  the  other  experiences  and 
hesitated  about  telling  them.  I  knew  she  had  more 
to  tell  and  read  her  the  history  of  another  nervous 
young  woman  whose  experiences  had  been  varied  enough 
to  cover  almost  anything  she  was  likely  to  have  en- 
countered.    This  young  woman  had  made  a  complete 


114  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

recovery  and  our  present  patient  began  to  have  aspi- 
rations to  live  and  to  be  well.  After  three  days,  she 
overcame  her  timidity  and  told  the  chiefest  of  her  dis- 
agreeable memories  which,  of  course,  concerned  her  ex- 
periences with  the  young  man  of  nineteen.  From  now 
on,  everything  was  told  freely  as  fast  as  she  remem- 
bered it.  I  took  up  each  episode  with  her  and  we 
tried  to  give  a  real  instead  of  a  fictitious  value  to  each, 
e.g.,  she  considered  herself  depraved,  that  she  had  lost 
her  virtue,  and  was  not  fit  to  marry  as  a  result  of  her 
experiences  with  this  young  man ;  but  I  made  it  plain 
to  her  that  a  girl  of  thirteen  or  fourteen,  with  abso- 
lutely no  instruction  in  sex  matters,  groping  her  way 
in  the  dark,  taken  advantage  of  at  the  time  of  her 
first  menstruation  and  first  strong  and  persistent  sex 
feelings  by  a  man  of  such  wide  experience  could  not  be 
held  responsible  at  any  tribunal  for  her  acts.  What 
really  counted  in  the  whole  experience  was  the  fact 
that  she,  unaided,  had  arrived  at  a  different  viewpoint 
and  had  terminated  these  relations  on  moral  grounds, 
even  while  erotically  desirous  of  them,  and  that  she 
had  refused  others  any  similar  privileges.  I  consid- 
ered her  not  responsible  for  the  events.  I  considered 
her  voluntary  termination  of  the  relations  an  indica- 
tion that  her  ideals  were  of  the  highest.  It  seemed  to 
me  that  she  had  proved  a  desire  for  correct  living 
when  everything  was  against  her.  I  thought  her  char- 
acter stronger  and  better  for  these  trials  and  even 
thought  her  more  trustworthy  in  this  particular  than 
many  of  those  who,  having  had  no  opportunities  or 
temptations,  had  had  none  of  these  experiences.  I  told 
her  just  what  I  thought,  and  was  measurably  successful 
in  convincing  her  that  I  was  right.  After  hearing  her 
whole  story  I  told  her,  as  I  felt,  that  I  had  no  higher 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  115 

aspirations  for  ray  own  boys  than  that  some  one  of 
them  should  fall  in  love  with  and  marry  her  or  some 
girl  of  equally  good  character. 

That  the  early  experiences  had  a  determining  value 
for  the  later  emotional  and  muscular  hysterical  mani- 
festations, i.e.,  that  they  were  conditioned  motor  re- 
flexes, seems  fairly  evident.  If  you  tickle  a  child  he 
will  giggle  or  laugh ;  if  this  is  persisted  in,  he  will  have 
convulsive  movements  ;  if  the  child  is  hurt  or  held  against 
his  will,  he  will  struggle,  and  the  movements  will  tend 
to  become  involuntary.  A  sudden  fear  or  being  sur- 
prised in  an  overt  act  will  cause  an  involuntary  tension 
in  many  or  all  the  muscles  in  the  body,  whether  the 
individual  be  child  or  adult.  Brill  has  recently  said 
and,  I  think,  shown  that  screaming  is  often  resorted  to 
to  drown  out  unpleasant  memories.  Fear  of  paralysis 
or  the  use  of  certain  muscles  for  wrong,  or  thought-to- 
be-wrong  purposes,  often,  causes  hysterical  paralysis. 
These  things  are  too  well  known  and  too  common  to 
need  more  than  the  mere  mention.  Now  let  us  see  how 
they  apply  in  this  case.  Tickling  a  girl  will  always 
cause,  from  the  more  highly  emotional  nature,  more 
reaction  than  tickling  a  boy.  Sexual  fondling  is  a  re- 
fined or  special  form  of  tickling  and  always  produces, 
in  the  female,  more  emotion  and  more  response  than 
ordinary  touch  stimulation. 

This  girl  at  the  outset  of  her  sex  life,  when  erotic 
feelings  were  becoming  strong,  when  her  real  knowl- 
edge of  these  things  was  nil,  though  curiosity  and  a 
half-formed  idea  of  right  and  wrong  were  present,  was 
subjected  repeatedly  in  similar  situations  to  manipula- 
tion of  the  breasts  and  fondling  of  the  clitoris,  and  at 
the  same  time  she  was  compelled  to  see  and  manipulate 
the   male   genital   organs.     One   would   infer   that   she 


116  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

would  react,  like  any  ordinary  child,  and  giggle  and 
squirm.  As  a  matter  of  fact  she  did,  and  remembers 
it  clearly.  When  later  she  was  compelled  to  endure 
severe  pain  from  the  pressure  of  the  penis  against  her 
external  genitals  and  was  discovered  in  this,  even  then 
thought-to-be-compromising  situation,  she  had  at  first 
rigidity  from  fear  and  almost  immediately  convulsive 
movements  in  her  efforts  to  escape.  Many  times  be- 
sides the  actual  occurrences  were  these  scenes  revived 
by  the  gibes  of  her  brother  and  the  fear  that  he  would 
tell  her  parents.  After  the  establishment  of  her  hys- 
terical condition,  attempts  of  the  brother  to  tease  her 
would  invariably  cause  convulsive  attacks.  Later  the 
sight  of  the  male  sex  organs  when  she  encountered  the 
two  exhibitionists  revived  the  whole  past  and  added  the 
new  fancies  of  a  desire  to  be  followed  and  violated  by 
these  men.  There  was  a  mental  struggle  against  these 
fancies  similar  to  the  physical  struggle  against  the  for- 
mer real  incidents.  Such  a  mental  struggle  will  produce 
tension  of  the  muscles,  abstraction,  and  involuntary 
motion.  The  curiosity  about  the  male  genitals  and 
erotic  feelings  produced  by  sight  or  thought  of  them 
was  a  very  potent  source  of  self-condemnation.  But 
I  showed  her  that  the  whole  matter  had  absolutely  noth- 
ing to  do  with  her  character  or  purity,  it  being  merely 
the  natural  manifestation  of  well  known  psychic  laws. 
Under  the  stress  of  a  high  degree  of  erotic  feeling  she 
was  compelled  to  see  and  handle  the  male  organs  which 
under  normal  conditions  in  any  normal  woman  would 
itself  produce  or  increase  erotic  excitement.  These 
experiences,  of  course,  could  not  be  readily  forgotten, 
nor  was  the  emotion  which  went  with  them  lost.  What 
more   natural   then,  when   her   brother   invited  her   to 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  117 

sexual  relations,  than  that  she  should  speculate  as  to 
the  size  of  his  organs  and  wonder  if  he  would  be  more 
successful  than  the  man  had  been.  It  was  inevitable 
that  erotic  feelings  should  accompany  these  specula- 
tions. These  imaginings  and  feelings  had  long  been 
put  aside  when  the  two  experiences  with  the  exhibition- 
ists revived  them  and  added  to  them.  As  a  child,  she 
had  wondered  much  concerning  the  completion  of  the 
sexual  act.  At  the  time  of  the  exhibition  experiences, 
she  had  been  for  a  long  time  strenuously  resisting  erotic 
feelings  and  an  impulse  to  masturbate. 

In  such  a  state,  almost  any  unconventional  idea  is 
likely  to  come  unsolicited.  If  we  may  speak  of  a  con- 
ditioned ps3'chic  reflex,  the  sight  of  the  genitals  of  the 
exhibitionists  was  the  condition  or  association  which 
brought  back  the  old  desire  and  imaginings  which  them- 
selves were  conditioned  by  the  associations  accompany- 
ing them,  and  applied  them  to  the  present  situation. 
Her  desire  to  be  pursued  and  violated  by  these  men  was 
conditioned  by  the  experiences  with  the  man  and  her 
brother,  formerly,  and  was  no  more  to  be  escaped  from 
than  the  memory  of  a  railroad  accident  which  one  has 
witnessed  or  been  involved  in  and,  therefore,  no  more 
a  test  of  character.  While  we  were  discussing  this 
from  every  viewpoint  for  a  week  or  two,  during  which 
time  I  explained  to  her,  by  means  of  anatomical  charts, 
the  size,  appearance,  and  functions  of  the  male  and 
female  genitals  (she  had  alread}'  had  a  course  in  em- 
bryology from  which  this  information  was  entirely  ex- 
purgated), she  had  numerous  dreams  and  day-time 
mental  pictures  of  male  genitals,  accompanied  by  some 
slight  erotic  feelings,  but  after  the  completion  of  the 
discussion,  these  disappeared  entirely.     She  had  many 


118  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

fears  that  she  was  anatomically  unfitted  for  intercourse 
and  child-bearing,  as  well  as  fears  that  she  had  been 
injured  or  that  the  hymen  had  been  ruptured.  These 
could  not  be  definitely  and  finally  disposed  of  by  talk. 
I,  therefore,  after  some  weeks,  made  a  physical  ex- 
amination, finding  an  anular  hymen  apparently  intact 
and  all  the  organs  perfectly  normal  except  a  very  slight 
retro-version.  She  felt  much  better  after  reassurance 
of  these  matters,  though  all  her  attacks  had  ceased 
some  time  before  the  examination.  As  has  been  stated, 
she  had  been  absolutely  devoid  of  erotic  feelings  for 
some  months  previous  to  coming  under  my  care.  Dur- 
ing the  first  week  of  our  discussions  there  were  none. 
I  told  her  in  the  event  of  having  such  feelings  to  hesi- 
tate no  more  in  relieving  them  and  to  worry  no  more 
about  it  than  about  an  act  of  micturition.  She  finally, 
just  before  beginning  to  menstruate,  had  erotic  feel- 
ings one  night  after  going  to  bed,  which  she  relieved 
by  titillation  of  the  clitoris,  obtaining  a  species  of 
orgasm,  complete  relief,  and  sound  sleep.  After  seven- 
teen days,  she  was  disturbed  by  erotic  feelings  during 
an  entire  afternoon  and  at  the  time  of  retiring  she  had 
identical  feelings  with  those  which  formerly  preceded 
her  hysterical  attacks.  She  obtained  a  fairly  satis- 
factory orgasm  by  titillation  of  the  clitoris,  and  all 
symptoms  of  hysteria  immediately  disappeared,  and 
she  soon  went  to  sleep.  During  the  next  five  weeks  she 
had  erotic  feelings  six  times,  on  three  occasions  the 
feelings  died  away  of  themselves,  on  the  three  others 
when  they  were  persistent  she  relieved  them  as  above, 
obtaining  on  each  occasion  an  imperfect  orgasm  but 
an  immediate  disappearance  of  the  feelings  and  sound 
sleep. 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  119 

I  became  satisfied  after  a  long  discussion  of  this  mat- 
ter that  she  had  been  so  afraid  of  anatomical  imperfec- 
tion and  so  opposed  to  masturbation  as  a  moral  and 
physical  transgression  (she  had  many  times  gotten  her- 
self to  the  verge  of  an  orgasm  and  then  by  desperate 
efforts  controlled  herself),  that  she  had  not  experi- 
enced a  perfect  orgasm  in  the  waking  state.  This  was 
confirmed  by  her  statement  that  in  her  occasional 
voluptuous  dreams,  she  had  experiences  far  more  com- 
plete than  when  awake.  I  now  explained  as  well  as  I 
could  what  the  complete  orgasm  was  like,  and  told  her 
that  long  time  repression  of  all  sex  feeling  and  her 
repeated  attempts  to  avoid  completion  made  the  ac- 
complishment of  the  orgasm  difficult,  but  that  there 
appeared  to  be  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  complete 
when  the  resistances  were  abandoned,  I  could  say  this 
with  more  authority  after  the  physical  examination, 
which  revealed  practical  perfection. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  treatment  she  said  that  she 
seldom  had  dreams  that  she  remembered.  I  told  her 
to  make  an  effort  to  remember  her  dreams,  and  to  write 
them  down  immediately.  It  developed  that  she  did 
dream  a  great  deal.  Many  of  these  dreams  are  inter- 
esting, as  showing  the  progress  of  the  treatment  in 
what  I  call  review  dreams,  which  of  course  were  partly 
suggested.  These  dreams  corroborate  Prince's  view 
expressed  in  his  book  The  Unconscious,  where  he  says 
that  "  though  dreams  are  often  fulfillment  of  wishes 
they  have  often  to  do  with  the  solution  of  unsolved 
problems  with  which  the  mind  has  been  occupied." 
One  of  the  later  dreams  and  its  sequel  I  propose  to  give 
first,  as  this  occurred  the  night  after  our  discussion 
of  the  reasons  for  her  inability  to  attain  a  complete 


120  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

sexual  orgasm  when  in  the  waking  state.  This  also 
"was  the  point  at  which  I  considered  the  treatment  prac- 
tically ended  and  the  patient  well. 

DREAM    MARCH    FOURTH 

She  dreamed  that  she  was  at  T crawling  in  Mr. 

C.'s  cellar,  and  he  following  her.  Then  she  was  in  a 
room  trying  to  get  something  to  eat.  Then  she  was 
standing  by  a  table  and  her  brother  was  fondling  her 
breasts  and  both  were  greatly  excited.  He  took  out 
his  erect  penis,  and  she  became  greatly  excited.  At 
this  point,  she  woke  in  a  state  of  great  excitement  and 
began  to  titillate  the  clitoris.  The  parts  were  moist, 
and  moisture  increased  with  excitement.  After  a  few 
minutes  she  used  a  syringe  nozzle  in  the  vagina.  This 
increased  the  sensation  but  the  greater  sensation  con- 
tinued to  be  in  the  clitoris.  In  about  thirty  minutes, 
the  orgasm  occurred.  This  she  described  as  rythmical 
contractions  all  about  the  clitoris  and  inside  the  va- 
gina. There  was  a  feeling  of  extreme  tension  at  the 
beginning  of  the  orgasm  and  relaxation  as  the  con- 
tractions subsided.  There  were  about  a  dozen  con- 
tractions, being  further  apart  and  more  violent  toward 
the  end.  During  this  experience  she  felt  powerless  to 
think  or  move  and  she  never  remembered  having  "  such 
strong  pleasurable  feelings."  There  was  slight  desire 
and  slight  manipulation  of  the  clitoris  as  the  feelings 
slowly  subsided.  A  slight  epistaxis  soon  occurred,  not 
uncommon  in  her  case,  and  the  headache,  feeling  of 
stupidity  and  pressure  in  the  head  which  she  had  felt 
increasingly  for  some  days,  left  her  completely  and 
she  felt  easy,  perfectly  relaxed,  contented,  happy,  and 
without  self-criticism.  It  will  be  remembered  that  she 
considered  voluptuous  dreams  indications  of  impurity 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  121 

and  degeneracy  and  that   she  had  dreaded  them   and 
resolved  to  do  all  she  could  to  prevent  them.     Perhaps 
that  is  the  reason  for  her  waking  before  the  orgasm. 
One  of  the  last  subjects  to  be  discussed,  but  one  of 
much  importance  was   concerning  a   series   of  experi- 
ences which   occurred   before   the  experience   with   the 
exhibitionists  and  undoubtedly  conditioned  their  effects 
upon  her.     It  will  be  remembered  that  she  was  much 
impressed  by  the  expression  of  sexual  pleasure  on  the 
face  of  the  last  exhibitionist,  and  these  memories  were 
often  stimuli  inducing  erotic   feeling,  in   spite  of   the 
natural  revolt  of  her  nature  against  such*  feelings  un- 
der   such    conditions.     The    following    experience    had 
been  forgotten  or  thought  not  worth  mentioning,  yet 
it  shows  clearly  that  its  determining  influence  gave  much 
greater  significance  to  the  exhibitionist  episodes  than 
they  otherwise  would  have  had.     From  the  age  of  fif- 
teen, she  had  been  mildly  subject  to  migraine,  attacks 
occurring  once  or  twice  a  month  after  severe  nervous 
excitement  or  worry.     I  first  learned  of  this  some  weeks 
after   her   arrival,   after   she  had   told   a   friend   some 
of  her  troubles  and  this  conversation  had  been  followed 
by  a  mild  attack.     Later  I  questioned  her  about  this 
and  learned  that  in  addition  to  the  above  she  had,  for 
the  last  two  years,  also  been  car-sick,  especially  when 
traveling  in  the  night,  though  this  might  happen  in  the 
daytime.     She  was  never  car-sick  previous  to  a  trying 
experience  two  years  ago  while  traveling  in  the  night. 
Oh  this  occasion  a  storm  made  it  necessary  for  her  to 
drive  to  make  a  train  a  long  distance  over  a  lonely  road 
by  night  with  two  strange  men.     Then  she  had  to  walk 
some  distance  through  a  questionable  part  of  the  city 
with  one  of  the  strangers.     Though  this  man  proved 
to  be  a  perfect  gentleman,  she  was  much  afraid  during 


122  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

both  the  ride  and  the  walk,  more  so  because  she  had 
recently  heard  the  details  of  the  narrow  escape  of  one 
of  her  friends  who  had  been  approached  on  the  train 
bj  a  white-slaver,  and  rescued  by  a  gentleman  among 
the  passengers.  This  kept  worrying  her  after  board- 
ing her  train.  In  the  seat  across  the  aisle  sat  a  man 
who  began  to  stare  at  her  and  to  try  to  attract  her 
attention.  She  had  no  idea  what  his  actions  meant 
and  was  thoroughly  disgusted  with  him,  knowing  in- 
stinctively that  there  was  some  sexual  purport  in  his 
conduct.  Later  she  remembered  his  facial  expression, 
which  indicated  sexual  enjoyment,  and  had  erotic  feel- 
ings herself  at  the  memory,  though  ashamed  of  herself 
for  having  them.  His  actions  as  described  were  to 
stare  steadily  at  her  for  a  time  then  to  lean  over  the 
back  of  the  seat  and  stare  at  another  woman.  During 
all  this  time  he  was  never  still,  but  kept  fidgeting  and 
twisting  about  in  his  seat.  He  kept  his  hands  in  his 
pockets.  She  was  particularly  impressed  by  his  facial 
expression,  which  was  that  of  intense  abstraction,  and 
indicated  unmistakably  excessive  sexual  excitement  and 
pleasure.  She  had  no  idea  of  what  he  was  doing,  in- 
deed she  did  not  know  until  our  talks  that  men  or  boys 
ever  masturbated.  Of  course  it  is  evident  that  this  was 
his  occupation  at  the  time,  and  the  case  is  almost  iden- 
tical with  that  of  another  lady  patient  of  mine. 

I  myself  have  also  observed  a  similar  occurrence  in  a 
public  conveyance.  Chrysippus  commended  Diogenes 
for  masturbating  in  public,  but  he  might  advocate 
greater  privacy  about  the  practice  in  the  present  state 
of  society,  if  he  knew  the  disturbances  which  result 
from  chance  observation  of  it  by  uninformed  and  un- 
married women. 

Her  trip  was  otherwise  uneventful,  but  ever  since 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  123 

that  time  riding  on  the  cars  has,  invariably  at  night, 
usually  by  day,  induced  severe  car-sickness.  If  this  is 
not  a  conditioned  reflex,  what  is?  The  incidents  of 
the  trip  were,  with  all  their  associations,  vividly  im- 
pressed upon  her  mind.  The  fear  and  the  disgust  were 
closely  associated  with  her  railway  journey.  Later 
there  was  more  disgust  with  herself  for  allowing  the 
erotic  feelings  which  accompanied  memories  of  this 
man's  facial  expression.  Later  the  remembered  ex- 
pression on  the  exhibitionist's  face,  which  was  similar, 
produced  in  her  the  same  result,  more  readily  prob- 
ably because  of  this  former  experience.  Naturally  she 
did  not  want  to  harbor  such  thoughts  and  pushed  them 
into  the  background  of  consciousness,  possibly  into  the 
subconscious.  The  association  of  cars,  especially  at 
night,  brought  back  the  most  permanent  thing,  which 
was  disgust,  but  a  feeling  of  disgust  on  an  ordinary 
railway  journey  would  start  inquiries  as  to  the  reason. 
As  this  reason  had  been  willed  aside,  the  association 
roused  its  synonym,  nausea,  which  could  be  present  with- 
out in  any  way  awakening  her  suspicion.  She  and  I  are 
both  confident  that  now  these  things  have  been  thor- 
oughly explained,  she  will  not  be  car-sick  again.  In 
fact,  she  has  already  demonstrated  this  to  a  certain 
extent.  Of  course  I  explained  to  her  that  it  was  a 
perfectly  natural  and  common  phenomenon  that  erotic 
feeling  sliould  be  aroused  in  any  one  of  either  sex,  no 
matter  how  chaste  or  modest,  when  compelled  to  observe 
pets  or  domestic  animals  copulating,  or  when  humans 
were  observed  in  the  same  situation,  or  when  one  of 
either  sex  was  known  to  be  in  a  state  of  sexual  excite- 
ment, or  when  erotic  situations  were  read,  heard  about, 
or  seen  dramatized  in  our  common  vaudeville.  This  is 
one  of  the  best  known  of  human  reactions.     Like  prq- 


lU  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

duces  like.  An  enthusiastic  speaker  rouses  his  hearers, 
a  dull  one  puts  them  to  sleep.  One  who  has  just  eaten, 
placed  at  a  good  table  with  a  lot  of  hungry  men,  will 
begin  over  again  with  appetite.  The  stronger  and  more 
primitive  the  emotion  involved,  the  greater  the  reaction ; 
hence,  very  many  people,  I  suspect  about  all  people,  at 
times,  much  to  their  own  chagrin,  react  to  some  of  the 
above  mentioned  stimuli  just  as  this  young  lady  did 
and  as  I  myself  have  done.  Her  sick  headaches  or 
migraine  can  undoubtedly  be  explained  as  can  most 
such  cases  on  exactly  the  same  principle. 

In  Rational  Sex  Ethics,  p.  ISlfF,  I  have  remarked 
that  nocturnal  emissions  in  men  and  voluptuous  dreams 
in  women  seemed  to  adequately  take  care  of  the  super- 
fluous sexual  energy  in  some  people,  but  that  this  relief 
proved  inadequate  in  very  many  cases.  I  now  wish 
to  reassert  this  statement  more  strongly  as  the  result 
of  many  recent  observations  and  to  try  to  elucidate 
this  matter  somewhat.  This  nocturnal  relief  in  dreams 
seems  to  be  the  ideal  method  for  the  single  or  the  un- 
avoidably continent,  and  I  offer  a  psychological  reason 
for  its  so  often  proving  inadequate.  Nearly  all  young 
men  and  women  get  from  quack  literature  or  the  cur- 
rent books,  supposed  to  tell  what  young  people  should 
know,  or  from  other  sources,  the  idea  that  there  is 
something  physically  injurious  or  ethically  "  off  color  " 
in  these  involuntary  manifestations.  In  the  present 
case,  as  in  many  others  I  have  investigated,  the  dread 
of  this  form  of  sex  expression  becomes  a  frightful  night- 
mare. They  are  always  on  their  guard.  They  take 
precautions  to  avoid  sexual  dreams,  and  will  not  to 
have  them  the  last  thing  before  going  to  sleep.  Con- 
stantl}'  being  on  the  defensive  undoubtedly  has  an  in- 
hibitory effect  on  the  sleep  and  dream  manifestations  of 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  125 

the  individual.  We  all  know  that  the  manifest  content 
of  the  dream  is  largely  dependent  on  the  dream-day  and 
many  believe  that  childhood  and  adolescent  wishes  and 
trends  influence  dreams  extensively.  It  then  seems  per- 
fectly logical  to  infer  that  this  long  established  an- 
tipathy and  dread  prevents  in  many  people  the  natural 
release  in  sleep  of  surplus  sex  energy. 

An  additional  reason  for  believing  this  may  be  ad- 
duced from  facts  fairly  well  known  and  which  I  myself 
have  repeatedly  demonstrated,  that  a  woman  who  be- 
fore marriage  has  been  self-conscious,  prudish,  and 
in  fear  of  nocturnal  sleep  manifestations,  and  almost 
lacking  nocturnal  sex  manifestations,  or  at  least  such 
as  had  complete  culmination,  after  marriage  and  after 
the  acquirement  of  sensible  sex  knowledge,  during  the 
absence  of  her  husband  or  during  enforced  abstinence 
from  any  cause  has  almost  invariably,  before  sex  de- 
sire became  excessive,  had  complete  sexual  orgasms 
and  relief  in  dreams.  I  often  have  discussed  these  mat- 
ters with  younger  or  older  single  women  who  formerly 
had  no  such  relief,  or  if  so  it  was  a  rare  occurrence, 
followed  by  harsh  self-criticism  and  constant  dread  of 
recurrence.  After  learning  of  and  accepting  my  be- 
lief as  to  the  absolute  normality,  morality,  and  utility 
of  such  dreams,  they  had  them  with  increasing  fre- 
quency, corresponding  to  which  there  was  a  reduction 
of  conscious  desire.  Of  course,  the  long  established 
inhibitions  are  too  strong  for  early  and  complete  eradi- 
cation, but  this  change  occurs  frequently  enough  to 
lead  one  to  think  that  the  changed  viewpoint  influences 
the  dreams.  These  ideas  are  tentative  but  ought,  after 
considerable  observation,  to  be  susceptible  of  proof  or 
disproof.  If  proved  correct,  here  is  a  strong  argu- 
ment for  early,  sensible  sex  knowledge,   not   only   for 


126  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

the  prevention  of  neurotic  and  psycho-neurotic  states, 
but  as  a  preventive  of  what,  without  some  such  relief, 
I  and  some  others  have  considered  necessary  —  con- 
scious auto-erotism. 

After  estabhshing  a  systematic  method  of  rehef,  this 
patient  discovered  that  frequently  desire  continued 
after  a  complete  orgasm.  She  continued  the  excita- 
tion for  two  or  three  minutes,  when  another  orgasm 
occurred,  more  violent  than  the  first,  affording  com- 
plete relief  and  a  longer  respite  from  desire  than  the 
single  orgasm  had  given.  The  occasions  of  her  auto- 
erotic  relief  up  to  the  time  of  the  dream  with  the  fol- 
lowing complete  orgasm  have  been  given.  I  add  with- 
out comment  a  list  of  her  experiences  from  that  time 
to  the  present.  March  13th,  orgasm;  March  13th, 
later  began  to  menstruate ;  March  16th,  orgasm ;  March 
17th,  orgasm  afternoon  and  evening;  March  18th,  two 
orgasms  (discovered  the  efficacy  of  one  orgasm  imme- 
diately following  another);  March  19th,  orgasm; 
March  20th,  orgasm ;  March  24th,  two  orgasms ;  March 
29th,  two  orgasms ;  March  30th,  orgasm ;  March  31st, 
orgasm ;  April  2nd,  orgasm ;  April  5th,  voluptuous 
dream ;  April  8th,  began  to  menstruate ;  April  11th,  two 
orgasms;  April  14th,  orgasm;  April  16th,  voluptuous 
dream;  April  18th,  orgasm;  April  19th,  two  orgasms; 
April  26th,  five  orgasms  in  a  half  hour;  May  1st  excite- 
ment but  no  orgasm ;  May  8th,  orgasm ;  May  10th, 
orgasm;  May  18th,  orgasm;  May  25th,  orgasm;  May 
27th,  orgasm;  May  30th,  orgasm;  June  1st,  orgasm; 
June  6th,  orgasm ;  June  8th,  two  orgasms  in  the  after- 
noon and  one  in  the  evening;  June  9th,  orgasm;  June 
11th,  orgasm;  June  19th,  three  orgasms;  June  20th, 
orgasm  in  afternoon,  also  evening;  June  21st,  orgasm; 
June  25th,  orgasm;  June  26th,  orgasm;  June  28th, 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  127 

orgasm ;  June  29th,  orgasm ;  July  2nd,  orgasm  in  the 
afternoon,  also  evening.  Began  to  menstruate  July 
3rd,  A.  M. ;  July  4th,  orgasm ;  July  5th,  orgasm ;  July 
10th,  orgasm;  July  11th,  two  orgasms;  July  12th, 
orgasm.  From  July  12th  to  22nd,  voluntary  absti- 
nence from  auto-erotism,  though  desire  was  present 
often  in  the  afternoon  and  evening.  When  desire  was 
strong  after  going  to  bed  would  go  to  sleep  after  an 
hour  or  two,  and  no  desire  on  waking  in  morning. 
On  each  recurrence  of  erotic  feeling,  the}'  were  stronger 
and  more  oppressive  than  before.  After  July  22nd, 
she  exerted  considerable  repression,  and  up  to  the  pres- 
ent has  masturbated  about  twice  a  week,  on  an  average, 
there  often  being  two  or  three  orgasms  rapidly  suc- 
ceeding each  other  on  each  occasion.  If  she  refrained 
for  a  week,  a  voluptuous  dream  would  occur.  During 
periods  of  severe  mental  strain  or  application,  desire 
would  be  excessive,  and  after  experimenting  she  found 
that,  with  more  frequent  relief,  she  could  do  her  work 
with  perfect  satisfaction  and  without  any  discomfort. 
Otherwise  the  work  was  unsatisfactory,  and  she  was 
completely  worn  out  by  it. 

DREAMS    AND    HINTS    AT    THEIR    INTERPRETATION 

January  25th  —  1 

She  dreamed  that  she  was  a  teacher  in  a  country 
school,  and  a  little  boy  was  masturbating.  She  told 
him  not  to  do  this,  whereupon  all  the  other  boys  be- 
gan to  do  the  same  thing.  She  herself  had  strong 
erotic  feelings  in  the  dream,  and  woke  in  a  state  of 
excitement  which  she  tried  to  relieve  but  did  not  obtain 
a  complete  orgasm. 

This  dream  came  after  the  doctor's  explanation  of 


128  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

the  universality  and  ordinary  harmlessness  of  moderate 
auto-erotism.  The  first  dream  of  the  series  is  similar 
to  the  last,  already  given,  which  was  followed  by  a  com- 
plete orgasm  and,  as  it  had  occurred  the  night  after  a 
detailed  explanation  of  the  orgasm,  so  this  dream  fol- 
lowed a  thorough  discussion  of  auto-erotism. 

January  28th  —  2 

Dreamed  that  her  brother  was  chasing  the  doctor's 
little  girl  of  ten,  he  being  exposed.  They  were  in  the 
doctor's  backyard  and  the  dreamer  was  trying  to  stop 
him.  This  dream  occurred  two  weeks  before  she  told 
the  doctor  of  her  brother's  proposal  to  her. 

Evidently  the  doctor's  child  is  substituted  for  the 
dreamer  whom  the  brother  is  really  pursuing.  She  ex- 
plained, ultimately  more  fully,  that  after  his  proposal, 
though  she  had  repulsed  him  and  had  had  a  feeling  that 
it  was  not  right ;  nevertheless,  she  did  long  to  see  his 
genital  organs  and  to  have  relations  with  him.  She 
thought  that,  her  brother  being  smaller  than  the  man, 
the  act  might  be  complete  with  him.  This  was  a  favor- 
ite longing  of  hers  for  a  time,  but  later  she  felt  great 
shame  to  have  had  this  curiosity  and  longing. 

February   1st  —  3 

She  dreamed  that  she  was  engaged  to  a  patient  who 
resembled  the  man  of  the  history,  and  the  doctor's  wife 
encouraged  the  alliance.  When  he  proposed,  she  was 
at  the  kitchen  sink  doing  dishes.  He  gave  her  a  ring 
having  five  fire  opals,  though  some  of  them  were  broken. 
His  people  thought  her  too  common  and  opposed  the 
match.  She  felt  badly,  not  knowing  how  to  break  the 
engagement.  When  the  doctor  returned,  she  ran  to 
him,  threw  her  arms  about  his  neck  and  cried,  where- 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  129 

upon  the  doctor  said  that  she  was  in  a  nervous  condi- 
tion, not  responsible,  and  the  engagement  had  better 
be  broken. 

The  engagement  refers  to  her  relation  with  the  man 
formerl3\  The  doctor's  wife's  encouragement  is  ful- 
filling a  wish  of  hers  that  she  might  think  well  of  her  in 
spite  of  her  conduct.  The  ring  with  broken  opals  in- 
dicates the  improper  and  ephemeral  relation,  and  that 
he  did  not  make  proper  and  conventional  love  to  her 
but  insulted  and  misused  her.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  she 
at  one  time  wore  a  ring  of  his  to  school,  and  she  also 
had  a  ring  with  fire  opals  in  it.  Her  desire  to  escape 
the  engagement,  referred  to  the  tangle  her  life  had 
been  in  and  her  shame  and  discouragement.  Her  run- 
ning to  the  doctor  indicated  that  she  had  been  much 
comforted  by  his  assurances  that  her  responsibility  for 
her  childish  misdemeanors  was  nothing,  or  very  slight. 

February  3rd  —  4 

She  and  C ,  a  young  man  she  had  known  and 

thought  favorably  of,  though  she  had  not  had  conscious 
sex   imaginings   concerning  him,  were  trying  to  hitch 

up  a  horse.     C was  bareheaded  and  wore  a  white 

bathrobe  and  she  also  was  dishevelled.  They  were  in 
some  barn,  both  were  hungry  and  both  had  sexual  de- 
sire. When  she  was  fifteen,  she  had  a  dream  that  they 
were  married.  She  had  had  this  young  man's  picture 
and  he  had  kissed  her  good  night  at  one  time. 

Evidently  this  was  a  sex  dream  and  the  difficulty  at- 
tendant on  hitching  up  the  horse  very  likely  had  refer- 
ence to  the  pain  and  shock  she  had  suffered  from  the 
attempts  at  intercourse  with  the  other  man. 


130  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

February  11th  —  5 

She  was  in  a  church  which  seemed  situated  back  of 
her  house  where  the  barn  really  was,  and  the  church  had 
a  barn  door.  In  the  church  near  the  altar  was  a  chest 
of  drawers  in  which  she  had  hidden  articles  of  cloth- 
ing. One  article  had  been  stolen.  She  felt  badly 
about  this  and  told  her  mother,  who  said  that  it  did  not 
make  much  difference.  The  article  in  question  was  a 
white  chemise.  The  dreamer  said  to  her  mother  that 
she  was  going  "  after  that  evening  dress."  It  was  in 
the  night  and  seemed  a  dangerous  undertaking.  She 
was  frightened  and  her  mother  did  not  want  her  to  go. 
She  went,  however,  and  took  her  blue  evening  dress  from 
one  of  the  lower  drawers,  and  ran  with  it  very  much 
frightened  into  the  house  and  slammed  the  door.  Her 
father  was  angry  because  she  had  been  after  it.  Then 
she  and  her  father  were  in  this  church,  which  now 
seemed  like  a  church  she  was  familiar  with,  and  she 
seemed  to  be  seeking  for  the  white  chemise  which  had 
been  stolen. 

In  this  dream  she  is  evidently  taking  up  the  threads 
of  her  life  anew  and  endeavoring  to  regain  her  self- 
respect.  The  stolen  white  chemise  might  be  the  vir- 
tue which  she  thought  she  had  lost.  Her  mother's  un- 
concern would  evidently  then  fulfill  the  wish  which  she 
had  expressed  to  me  many  times  that  her  mother  might 
not  think  too  hard  of  her,  if  she  should  ever  know  her 
misdemeanors.  She  was  afraid  to  go  after  the  eve- 
ning dress  which  to  me  indicated  her  reentrance  into  a 
happy  and  normal  way  of  living.  Her  mother  was 
afraid  to  have  her  go  and  her  father  was  angry.  She 
had  already  told  me  that  she  feared  her  mother's  horror 
and  her  father's  disapproval  if   they  should   come  to 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  131 

know  of  her  telling  me  all  these  things,  which  I  consid- 
ered necessary  for  her  recover}^  In  spite  of  her  fear, 
she  did  get  the  evening  dress,  or  in  other  words  became 
normal  and  happy.  Being  in  the  church  with  her  fa- 
ther seeking  the  white  garment,  to  me  indicates  com- 
plete reconciliation,  and  that  she  was  not  yet  quite  clear 
as  to  her  character  and  purity. 

February  12th  —  6 

A  little  explanation  is  necessary  to  introduce  the 
next  dream.  Lately  she  had  had  ideas  of  a  young  man, 
A.  H.  B,,  who  as  a  boy  gave  her  some  attention  and 
whose  affections  were  alienated  by  a  girl  whose  char- 
acter was  questionable.  She  had  felt  badly  about  this 
at  the  time,  as  she  liked  this  boy,  and  his  attentions 
had  been  strictly  correct.  At  the  time  she  had  known 
him,  she  had  had  some  sex  imagery  concerning  him, 
which  she  had  repressed  with  disgust.  Now  that  the 
other  matters  were  being  cleared  up  for  her,  she  again 
had  fancies  of  him  as  a  sexual  partner,  also  mental 
pictures  of  his  face  and  at  the  same  time  of  his  genitals. 
She  was  deeply  ashamed  of  this,  and  did  not  tell  me 
of  it  for  some  days.  The  night  after  she  had  told  me 
of  these  fancies,  and  I  had  explained  that  she  was 
finally  getting  rid  of  these  childish  unwelcome  imagin- 
ings, she  had  this  dream: 

It  was  a  rainy  day  and  she  was  teaching  school. 
She  would  not  let  the  children  out  of  doors.  They 
seemed  to  be  in  a  basement  under  a  steel  bridge.  She 
was  exploring  the  basement  and  went  into  a  place  where 
live  sparks  of  electricity  seemed  glowing  all  over  the 
wall  or  framework.  After  leaving  this  spot,  the  elec- 
trician in  charge  and  her  father  appeared  to  her.  The 
electrician  seemed  in  love  with  her  and  much  worried 


ISa  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

about  her.  Her  father  was  also  much  excited  and  both 
of  them  warned  her  against  going  into  that  place,  as 
she  surely  would  get  killed.  After  the  warning,  she 
told  them  that  she  had  already  been  through  the  danger 
safely,  at  which  both  were  much  rejoiced. 

It  seems  as  if  the  sparks  and  the  electricity  were 
symbols  for  her  erotic  feelings  and  images  concerning 
the  boy,  A.  H.  B.,  who  undoubtedly  was  the  electrician 
in  the  dream.  She  felt  that  both  he  and  her  father 
would  be  greatly  shocked  to  know  of  her  experiences 
and  perhaps  at  her  changed  viewpoint  in  regard  to 
auto-erotic  relief.  It  fulfilled  her  wish  that  she  came 
through  the  danger  safely  and  that  she  was  still  per- 
sona grata  to  A.  H.  B.  and  her  father. 

February  14th  —  7 

Dreamed  that  she  was  walking  near  the  river  late  at 
night  with  the  doctor's  wife,  and  a  villain  sprang  upon 
her  and  seized  her.  He  had  a  rope  with  rocks  tied  to  the 
ends  of  it  which  he  was  going  to  wind  about  her  before 
throwing  her  into  the  river.  The  doctor's  wife  en- 
deavored to  save  her  but  was  unable.  The  doctor  ap- 
peared and  attacked  and  thrashed  the  man,  and  took 
her  home.  She  was  sick  in  bed  and  people  came  and 
sent  her  flowers,  but  she  finally  recovered.  This  dream 
does  not  need  translation,  for  she  was  coming  to  feel 
that  the  doctor  was  helping  her  out  of  a  hopeless  situa- 
tion. 

While  this  patient  was  being  cured  she  wrote  out, 
though  this  was  her  first  experience  with  a  typewriter, 
her  own  case  at  my  dictation.  Immediately  after  she 
had  written  the  above,  she  said  to  me  that  she  recalled 
for  the  first  time  a  similar  dream  that  she  had  had  one 
year  ago.     In  it  she  and  her  roommate  went  by  night 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  133 

through  a  disreputable  part  of  the  city  where  they  had 
been  forbidden  to  go.  Some  villains  flashed  a  magne- 
sium light  in  their  faces,  seized  them,  put  them  in  can- 
vas bags,  and  carried  them  to  a  house  of  ill  fame. 
Cries  and  struggles  were  unavailing,  but  before  they 
had  been  initiated,  a  letter  sent  secretly  brought  some 
of  their  relatives  who  rescued  them.  One  cannot  fail 
to  see  that  this  dream  is  practically  the  same  as  the 
last  -  ne  except  that  the  rescuer,  from  her  thought-to- 
be-lost  condition,  now  takes  definite  form. 

February  16th  —  8,  Voluptuous  Dream 

She  dreamed  she  was  in  the  woods  with  her  brother 
and  that  he  had  intercourse  with  her,  which  was  pleas- 
urable to  both.  Then  she  seemed  to  be  in  the  kitchen 
here,  and  a  great  red  fox  pursued  her.  She  was  very 
much  frightened,  but  the  brother  drove  him  away. 
She  immediately  awoke  in  a  state  of  sexual  excitement, 
which  she  started  to  relieve  by  titillation  of  the  clitoris, 
but  did  not  obtain  the  orgasm,  as  it  was  time  to  get  up. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  she  as  a  child  had  had 
fancies  of  her  brother  being  more  successful  than  the 
man  had  been.  Here  that  childish  wish  is  fulfilled  and 
her  bete  noir,  the  red  fox,  in  other  words,  the  genital 
organs  of  the  man  who  assaulted  her,  which  had  had 
a  seductive  and  a  terrorizing  influence  upon  her  for 
so  long,  was  removed  by  the  brother's  success  in  inter- 
course in  the  dream.  It  would  be  natural  to  think  that 
after  this  dream  she  would  have  no  more  of  these  fancies 
concerning  intercourse  with  this  man  or  her  brother 
or  concerning  their  sexual  organs  and,  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time,  she  has  been  entirely  free  from  such. 


134  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 


BIRTH    DREAM 

"  I  seemed  to  be  sleeping  with  N (who  is  a  young 

woman  friend).  We  were  talking  a  while  and  then 
tried  to  go  to  sleep.  Then  I  seemed  to  be  in  labor. 
All  the  abdominal  muscles  were  contracting  and  trying 
to  force  the  child  out.  I  seemed  to  be  in  some  pain, 
and  my  efforts  were  fairly  tearing  me  to  pieces.  Then 
the  child  seemed  to  be  lying  in  the  bed  just  where  it 
had  emerged  from  me.  I  longed  desperately  to  take  it 
in  my  arms,  for  it  seemed  the  most  wonderful  thing  in 
the  world.     Yet  I  awoke  before  I  had  even  touched  it." 

This  dream  is  already  translated,  for  the  dreamer 
is  a  perfectly  normal  young  woman,  and  like  all  such 
longs  for  motherhood  under  the  proper  circumstances. 

March  18th 

"  I  live  near  M  with  my  parents.  My  father  and  I 
set  out  to  drive  somewhere.  On  the  way  we  find  four 
things :  a  carriage  rug  or  mat,  a  black  dog,  a  span  of 
beautiful  black  driving  horses  which  we  have  to  catch, 
and  some  white  eggs.  We  go  home  and  show  them  to 
mother.  We  are  putting  the  horses  in  the  barn,  and 
the  new  ones  are  inclined  to  be  refractory.  An  old 
man  seems  to  be  around  and  I  go  hunting  eggs  with 
him  in  the  hay.  We  find  lots  of  them,  but  they  are 
brown.  There  is  a  heap  of  hay  on  the  floor  and  he 
proposes  to  lie  on  this  and  have  intercourse.  I  refuse 
and  escape  him.  A  few  days  later  the  old  man  is  found 
dead  and  my  father  sends  me  to  Dr.  R,  who  lives  in 
England,  lest  I  be  accused  of  the  murder.  I  next  am 
at  Dr.  R's  house  and  am  quite  ill.  The  room  really  is 
not  in  Dr.  R's  house  but  is  a  room  which  I  was  once  in 
some  years  ago.     The  doctor  thinks  me  very  sick  but 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  135 

Mrs.  R  and  her  daughter  are  not  over-sympathetic.  I 
still  have  a  cap  and  overcoat  belonging  to  the  mur- 
dered man,  and  in  the  night  I  am  cold,  and  put  the 
overcoat  over  me.  I  am  lying  in  a  cot  alone  in  a  room 
and  suddenly  I  have  a  feeling  that  I  am  suspected  of 
this  murder  and  that  these  clothes  will  convict  me.  It 
is  a  dark  cold  night  but  I  am  nearly  wild  with  fear, 
and  in  my  frenzy  I  go  out  and  hide  these  things  by 
burying  them  in  the  ground.  In  the  morning  I  am 
ill,  with  a  great  deal  of  fever  and  delirium,  and  Dr.  R 
is  much  worried. 

"  Some  weeks  have  passed  and  I  am  better  but  still 
somewhat  in  disgrace  with  most  of  the  doctor's  family. 
The  doctor  and  his  wife  are  soon  to  go  to  America  and 
their  daughter  is  going  to  teach  school.  I  am  to  be 
sent  back  to  a  certain  house  in  London  where  I  seem 
to  have  roomed  before,  and  I  am  to  seek  employment 
of  some  sort.  We  all  go  for  a  sort  of  farewell  picnic 
down  by  a  beautiful  little  river.  The  doctor's  daugh- 
ters (aged  twenty-five  and  ten)  and  I  find  a  lot  of  lovely 
little  yellow  and  white  chrysanthemums  beside  the 
stream.  Doctor  and  his  wife  visit.  We  girls  then  see 
some  beautiful  flowers  across  the  stream  and  we  want 
them.  We  wade  across,  although  Doctor  forbids  it, 
and  reach  the  other  side  in  safety.  A  lover  of  mine 
has  followed  us,  and  when  about  in  the  middle  of  the 
stream  he  appears  below  and  wants  me  to  come  with 
him  and  marry  him.  I  seem  to  be  fond  of  him  down  in 
my  heart,  yet  I  treat  him  rudely  and  send  him  away. 
Upon  reaching  the  other  side  of  the  stream  we  find  our- 
selves in  the  most  exquisitely  beautiful  place  I  ever  have 
seen.  There  was  the  clear  river  flowing  on  the  right 
side  of  us,  and  we  were  in  a  sort  of  open  forest.  To 
our  left  was  a  dense  wood.     Flowers  were  everywhere, 


136  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  the  trees  were  filled  with  some  members  of  the  Mnlo- 
tiltidas  family  who  were  making  sweet  music.  It  was 
cool  and  shady,  and  we  picked  a  great  many  flowers. 
They  were  most  peculiar,  purple  ones  and  white  ones, 
with  the  leaves  of  the  same  color.  They  were  not  much 
like  ordinary  flowers  because  they  seemed  to  be  spiral 
(diameter  at  the  base  two  inches  and  about  six  inches 
high,  tapering  toward  the  top),  but  they  were  so  beau- 
tiful. When  we  had  gathered  all  we  wanted,  we  sat 
down  and  talked  of  the  future  and  carried  on  conver- 
sation with  Dr.  and  Mrs.  R,  who  were  still  on  the  other 
side.  We  seemed  to  be  happy  and  did  not  want  to 
part.  My  future  was  most  indefinite  and  N  did  not 
want  to  teach.  We  were  still  enjoying  the  Elysian 
beauty  when  I  woke." 

She  and  the  doctor's  daughter  had  a  very  confidential 
talk  on  the  day  before  the  dream  and  she  felt  much 
relieved  by  it.  The  pile  of  hay  in  the  barn  seemed 
identical  with  the  place  where  one  of  her  experiences 
with  the  man  occurred.  The  eggs  in  the  first  instance 
were  a  pure  white  and  the  others  were  a  dirty  brown. 

Going  to  England  to  Dr.  R's  might  be  going  east  to 
a  strange  and  dreaded  place,  and  returning  to  London 
might  be  going  back  to  college. 

With  these  things  in  mind,  we  might  interpret  the 
main  points  of  this  dream  in  a  somewhat  Freudian  way, 
though  we  do  not  insist  upon  it.  Her  trip  with  her 
father  involved  transition  from  the  dirty  rug  or  mat 
and  black  dog,  typical  of  her  former  deplored  mental 
state  and  sex  experiences  to  the  black  horses  of  legiti- 
mate sex  relief,  and  the  white  eggs  of  purity  in  pros- 
pective marriage  and  motherhood.  The  old  man  and 
the  brown  eggs  would  seem  to  indicate  her  former  ques- 
tionable sex  acts  with  the  man  and  her  sexual  imagin- 


A  CASE  OF  HYSTERIA  137 

ings.  The  pile  of  hay  identifies  the  old  experiences,  and 
the  man  in  the  case  now  seems  old  and  disgusting.  He 
was  killed  when  she  prohibited  further  relations,  but 
his  cap  and  coat,  signifying  the  results  to  her  character 
of  her  experiences,  were  with  her  until  I  helped  her  bury 
them,  and  she  certainly  was  nervously  quite  sick  during 
the  first  of  this  process.  She  often,  in  reality,  said  to 
me,  "  What  would  your  wife  and  daughter  say  to  me 
if  they  knew  my  history .''  "  Hence,  she  was  in  disgrace 
with  my  family  in  the  early  part  of  the  dream.  The 
general  picture  obtained  from  her  dream  farewell  picnic 
seems  no  derogation  of  my  methods.  I  am  unable  to 
see  why  she  made  me  forbid  them  to  cross  the  river  for, 
though  I  know  all  girls  must  wade  through  deep  water, 
I  knew  enough  of  the  circumstances  to  have  no  further 
fears  for  them,  and  she  knew  it  before  the  dream.  The 
lover  seems  impersonal  and  she  sent  him  away,  though 
wanting  him  deep  down  in  her  heart  because,  though 
now  anticipating  marriage  and  children  in  the  future, 
she  is  not  ready  for  these  beatitudes  until  her  educa- 
tion is  complete,  and  she  has  seen  more  of  a  world 
recently  discovered  to  be  like  the  Elysium  of  her  dream. 
The  purple  and  white  flowers  show  how  the  same  thing 
may  be  considered  good  or  bad.  The  white  are  now 
in  the  ascendency.  Strictly  Freudian  interpretation 
may  carry  the  symbolism  further  and,  recalling  that  she 
as  a  little  girl  was  familiar  with  the  size,  shape,  and 
color  of  the  adult  erect  organ,  say  that  these  flowers 
resemble  this  very  much  and  indicate  that  it  might  be 
the  bearer  of  the  greatest  harm  or  the  greatest  good 
and  that  the  same  body  and  mind  thought  to  be  vile 
in  the  past  were  pure  and  wholesome  and  that  the  fu- 
ture had  in  store  perfectly  legitimate  happiness  and 
usefulness. 


138  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

As  a  final  word  we  might  say,  a  propos  of  the  many 
recent  efforts  toward  a  saner  mental  hygiene,  that  this 
case  is  paralleled  by  thousands  having  a  similar  etiology, 
though  the  results  may  be  either  neurosis,  psycho- 
neurosis,  dementia  praecox  or  other  mental  malady 
which,  taken  in  time,  would  deplete  our  institutions 
and  fill  up  the  ranks  of  normal,  happy,  useful  human- 
ity. 


CHAPTER  VI 

INTRODUCTION  TO  SEX  AND  CASE 
HISTORIES 

In  a  former  study  some  twenty-five  sex  histories 
of  normal  people  were  given  in  some  detail.  These  were 
selected  as  typical  of  several  hundred  such  histories 
then  collected.  The  limited  number  was  selected  in  or- 
der to  keep  consistently  to  the  principle  of  brevity.  It 
seems  advisable  to  present  as  a  basis  for  judgment  a 
few  more  similar  cases.  These,  like  the  former  ones, 
were  obtained  from  people  who  were,  as  far  as  could 
be  judged,  normal,  mural,  and  successful.  The  presen- 
tation of  such  cases  has  the  advantage  of  making  this 
study  more  nearly  complete  in  itself  without  reference 
to  the  earlier  work.  Five  interesting  histories,  not  then 
published,  are  taken  from  the  earlier  series.  The  rest 
have  been  selected  as  typical,  from  histories  collected 
recently,  most  of  them  within  the  last  year  or  two. 
Some  of  them  are  histories  of  young  people,  who,  in 
their  early  years,  were  instructed  in  sex  matters  by 
myself,  and  from  whom  I  recently  have  obtained  a  full 
history.  Indeed,  I  am  much  interested  in  some  of  these 
young  people,  having  had  a  fatherly,  professional,  or 
friendly  knowledge  of  them  since  their  advent  into  this 
world,  at  which,  with  some  of  them,  I  assisted.  While 
all  have  had  some  experience  with  auto-erotism,  which 
I  think  has  been  demonstrated  by  many  observations 
besides  my  own  as  a  normal  phase  in  the  life  of  prac- 
tically every  perfect  specimen  of  either  sex,  or  at  least, 

139 


140  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

again  to  quote  Ellis,  the  "  natural  result  of  unnatural 
circumstances,"  I  can  with  much  confidence  state  that 
no  one  of  the  young  people  with  whom  I  have  discussed 
sex  matters  ever  has  indulged  in  promiscuous  inter- 
course. Of  course,  I  may  have  been  deceived ;  but  since 
these  people  have  been  under  observation,  and  their 
general  reputation,  characteristics,  and  habits  known 
to  me,  any  such  deception  is  highly  improbable. 

Since  those  who  have  furnished  written  histories  have 
answered  the  questions  in  the  questionnaire  formerly 
used,  and  since,  in  general,  these  questions  have  been 
followed,  when  notes  for  histories  were  made  at  per- 
sonal interviews,  it  is  necessary  to  repeat  here  this 
questionnaire,  which  has  been  at  the  basis  of  all  the  sex 
histories.  Answers  to  questions  which  were  not  essen- 
tial sometimes  have  been  omitted ;  but  this  is  no  essen- 
tial detraction,  since  the  important  facts  are  recorded 
in  each  case. 

QUESTIONNAIRE    ON    PHYSIOLOGY    AND    PSYCHOLOGY    OF 

SEX 

1.  Sex,  age,  color  of  hair  and  eyes?     Peculiarities? 

2.  Were,  or  are,  your  parents  and  your  relatives  of 
sound  health?  Was  there  consumption,  rheumatism, 
nervousness,  or  insanity  in  any  member  of  your  family? 
Give  particulars. 

3.  Are  you  now,  and  have  you  been  from  childhood, 
in  good  health  with  the  exception  of  acute  diseases? 
State  fully  if  you  have  not  been. 

4.  Please  introspect  carefully  and  describe  the  first 
conscious  manifestations  of  sex.  (a)  The  first  feel- 
ings of  sex  for  any  one  of  your  own  or  of  the  opposite 

^sex.      (b)  Were  these  spontaneous  or  were  they  sug- 
"gested  to  you  by  some  one?      (c)   How  frequent  were 


SEX  AND  CASE  HISTORIES  141 

these   feelings   before   puberty?     How    frequent    after 
puberty? 

5.  Did  you,  as  a  child,  masturbate?  If  so,  was  the 
habit  taught  you  or  was  it  done  of  your  own  volition? 
If  taught,  under  what  circumstances?  If  not,  what 
led  to  its  beginning?  Did  threadworms,  friction  of 
clothing,  sliding  down  bannisters,  itching  of  prepuce, 
or  any  other  irritation  of  glans  penis  or  clitoridis,  or 
any  other  ascribable  cause  other  than  instinct  lead  to 
it?  Was  a  feeling  of  shame  instinctive  or  developed 
later  from  reading  or  from  conversation  with  other 
people?  Were  you,  as  a  child,  secretive  about  this 
habit  among  your  fellows,  or  not?  If  not,  when  did 
you  learn  to  be  secretive?  What  made  you  so?  When 
did  you  begin  to  try  to  give  up  this  habit?  What 
made  you  try,  and  how  long  before  you  were  success- 
ful? If  you  are  married,  has  this  ever  affected  your 
health  and  happiness  or  that  of  your  partner  or  that 
of  your  children?  If  single,  do  you  know  of  any  effect 
that  this  has  had  on  you  and  have  you  thought  or  do 
you  think  it  would  affect  you  if  married? 

6.  What  were  your  early  and  later  psychic  states 
when  you  indulged  in  auto-erotism,  i.e.,  did  you  have 
lascivious,  mental  pictures  of  persons  of  your  own  or 
the  opposite  sex?  If  of  the  opposite  sex,  did  you  im- 
agine that  you  were  married  and  having  intercourse, 
or  was  there  a  feeling  of  exerting  superior  physical 
power,  or  of  submitting  to  the  same?  Was  this  ever 
a  purely  physical  act,  without  psychic  accompaniment? 
Have  you  ever  had  day-dreams,  with  or  without  sexual 
concomitance  or  sequence? 

7.  What  were  your  worries  and  anxieties  about  in- 
juring your  mind  or  your  health  or  your  procreative 
powers  or  your  future  children?     State  effects  of  sug- 


142  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

gestive  literature  and  vaudeville  upon  you,  also  effects 
of  medical,  semi-medical,  and  quack  literature  which 
pictured  the  direful  effects  of  auto-erotism. 

8.  If  you,  for  a  short  time  only,  or  never,  practiced 
this  habit,  please  tell  what  your  sexual  life  has  been. 
If  you  have  had  irregular  (extra-marital)  intercourse? 
If  so,  how  frequent?  If  continent,  how  frequent  emis- 
sions did  you  have,  if  a  male ;  or,  if  a  female,  were  there 
voluptuous  dreams  with  orgasms  at  or  near  the  men- 
strual epoch? 

9.  Tell  the  early  surroundings  which  kept  the  sex- 
ual instinct  from  coming  into  consciousness  or  enabled 
you  to  control  it  if  it  did  come  into  consciousness. 

10.  Have  you,  at  any  time,  had  slight  or  serious 
nervous  troubles?  If  so,  have  excessive  virility,  ex- 
hausted vitality,  or  sexual  worries  or  practices  had, 
in  your  estimation,  anything  of  a  causal  relation? 

11.  Do  you  know  and  can  you  describe  briefly  well- 
authenticated  cases  where  nervous  diseases,  sexual  wor- 
ries, perversions,  or  continence  were  concomitant?  Is 
there  supposed  or  known  causal  relation? 

12.  From  your  own  observations  and  your  personal 
sexual  experiences,  what  sexual  hygiene  and  what  in- 
struction in  sex  matters  would  you  recommend  for 
children  and  young  people  for  their  own  happiness  and 
health  and  for  the  moral  improvement  of  society? 

13.  If  you  think  sexual  anomalies  important  factors 
in  the  causation  of  nervous  diseases,  what  would  you 
suggest  as  a  remedy? 

From  time  to  time,  when  the  value  of  other  informa- 
tion has  become  apparent,  other  questions  have  been 
asked,  and  the  answers  noted,  and  such  answers  have 
influenced  opinions  expressed  in  different  places,  though 


SEX  AND  CASE  HISTORIES  143 

these  answers  ordinarily  do  not  appear  in  the  printed 
histories.  Some  of  these  questions  have  been :  What 
is  the  frequency  of  intercourse  between  man  and  wife, 
what  its  duration?  How  regularly  does  the  wife  have 
orgasm?  What  is  the  effect  of  intercourse  without 
orgasm?  What  is  the  duration  of  auto-erotism?  Is 
this  practiced  without  culmination,  and  if  so  what  is 
the  effect?  In  a  woman,  does  complete  satisfaction  en- 
sue after  a  single  orgasm,  or  is  there  desire  or  necessity 
for  several  in  rapid  succession,  either  in  intercourse 
or  auto-erotism?  Do  erotic  feelings  increase  at  or  near 
the  climacteric?  Do  they  increase,  diminish,  or  re- 
main as  before,  after  this  period  is  passed? 


CHAPTER  VII 
CASE  HISTORIES 

Case  1 

1.  Male,  fortj-four  years,  blue  eyes,  brown  hair. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Slight  nervousness  and  several  attacks  of  sciatica. 
Hard  worker  and  very  active. 

4>.  First  had  sex  manifestations  at  about  eight,  when 
I  noticed  that  climbing  a  tree  gave  me  the  emotion. 
First  began  to  notice  girls  per  se  at  about  eleven. 
Nearly  always  liked  to  be  near  girls  from  thirteen  on, 
but  always  felt  much  embarrassed  in  their  company. 

5.  Yes,  habit  spontaneous,  but  other  boys  assisted 
and  did  it  themselves  without  thought  of  shame.  Feel- 
ing of  shame  and  concealment  was  developed  by  cir- 
culars given  out  in  Sunday  School  and  in  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
Circulars  were  in  the  usual  veiled  terms,  and  their  en- 
tire get-up  was  intended  to  scare  a  boy  into  an  early 
decline.  At  first  was  not  secretive,  but  afterwards 
was  very  much  so.  Emissions  always  gave  me  great 
relief  from  tight  feeling.  Gave  up  habit  because  some 
one  told  me  that  it  led  straight  to  the  insane  asylum, 
and  that  it  was  preferable  to  go  to  women.  From 
eighteen  to  twenty-eight  was  working  in  different  places 
at  heavy  manual  labor,  among  men,  and  so  managed 
to  remain  somewhat  in  control.  Married  at  twenty- 
eight  and  now  have  a  wife  and  daughter.     My  early 

life  has  had  no  observable,  deleterious  effects   on  my 

144 


CASE  HISTORIES  145 

wife  or  child,  and  I  should  be  broken-hearted  if  it  did 
have. 

6.  Had  no  early  mental  pictures  or  thoughts  about 
the  act,  simply  did  it  because  of  excessive  virility  or 
animal  spirits  or  hfe.  I  did  it  daily  for  a  long  time, 
and  it  always  seemed  as  if  the  parts  forced  themselves 
on  me.  Sometimes  it  would  seem  as  if  they  would  swell 
up  and  burst  if  not  relieved.  Nearly  always  the  act 
was  purely  physical.  After  eighteen  I  would  dream 
nearly  every  night,  all  sorts  of  dreams,  which  usually 
wound  up  with  coitus  with  some  one  and  was  followed 
by  a  seminal  emission.  I  then  believed  these  emissions 
to  be  sure  signs  of  early  mental  and  physical  decay  and 
tried  every  way  to  avoid  them.  Would  work  myself 
down  to  try  to  sleep  without  them,  but  it  was  no  use. 

7.  All  the  literature  that  has  been  brought  to  my 
attention  has  resulted  in  all  sorts  of  worries  because  of 
what  I  thought  was  a  very  serious  breakdown  imminent 
in  the  near  future. 

8.  After  eighteen  many  voluptuous  dreams  at  all 
times.  Now,  when  I  have  such  dreams,  they  always 
include  my  wife.  Have  had  them  many  times  with 
most  pleasurable  emotions.  She  is  nearly  always  their 
chief  actress,  but  sometimes  is  in  the  near  background. 
In  fact,  now  my  sexual  demands  on  my  wife  are  exces- 
sive, although  I  do  everything  in  my  power  to  restrain 
myself,  and  when  she  is  away  from  me,  I  am  in  torture. 
I  try  not  to  think  about  it,  but  the  force  comes  from  the 
physical  side. 

9.  Was  raised  in  a  family  where  I  attended  a  Pres- 
byterian Sunday  School  until  I  was  twelve  years  old. 
After  that  I  seldom  went,  and  now  do  not  go  at  all. 

10.  Have  never  had  any  trouble  at  all  other  than 
that  mentioned,  and  excessive  virility. 


146  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

12.  I  cannot  say  just  what  teaching  should  be  fol- 
lowed, but  I  believe  that  if  we  are  going  to  reduce  dis- 
ease and  crime  some  effort  must  be  made  to  provide 
that  women  shall  get  married  about  twenty  and  men 
about  twenty-two.  Our  present  economic  system  makes 
for  prostitution,  because  it  is  impossible  to  suppress  the 
sex  longings  until  a  man  is  thirty  or  more,  and  it  is  the 
same  for  women.  I  know  absolutely  that  late  mar- 
riages and  ignorance  of  the  sex  relation  tend  to  in- 
crease prostitution.  Children  under  eighteen  should 
have  some  sex  instruction,  some  of  which  I  have  only 
learned  within  the  last  five  years.  Late  marriages  tend 
to  destroy  society,  from  one  cause  or  another. 

13.  I  have  had  no  experience  with  this.  Never  heard 
of  any  directly. 

Case  2 

1.  Male,  twenty-seven  years,  dark  hair,  blue  eyes. 

2.  Mother  and  father  generally  well,  but  mother  had 
a  tendency  to  nervousness,  and  severe  attacks  of  rheu- 
matism. 

3.  I  have  had  most  of  the  children's  diseases,  but 
have  since  enjoyed  the  best  of  health.  I  am  rarely 
sick  and  have  not  been  seriously  so  since  childhood. 

4f.  Up  to  the  age  of  twelve,  I  had  no  knowledge  of 
sex  differences.  I  never  had  any  sex  instruction  of  any 
sort  except  such  as  was  self-acquired.  My  curiosity 
first  aroused  by  hearing  some  one  suggest  that  the 
sexes  were  not  the  same.  After  that  time  (about 
twelve  or  thirteen)  I  was  very  eager  to  inform  myself. 
My  parents  dodged  the  question  and  I  sought  to  ob- 
tain some  information  through  such  old-styled  medical 
books  as  I  found  in  the  home  library.  Sex  curiosity 
was  pretty  constant  thereafter,  and  increasing. 


CASE  HISTORIES  147 

5.  I  learned  to  masturbate  of  myself  while  rolling 
and  twisting  in  bed.  Instinctively,  I  was  ashamed  and 
secretive.  I  began  to  try  to  give  up  the  habit  at  fif- 
teen or  sixteen,  on  account  of  reading  one  of  the  old- 
style  scare  books,  but  I  was  not  successful.  The  habit 
was  at  first  practiced  once  or  twice  a  day  and  contin- 
ued so  till  about  twenty.  Since  then,  it  gradually  has 
been  practiced  much  less ;  now  rarely  more  than  once 
in  a  period  varying  from  one  to  three  weeks.  I  was 
much  bothered  for  a  long  time  by  shame  and  fear  of 
the  consequences,  but  this  has  been  passing  away  of 
late  years  under  the  feeling  that  it  was  evidently  doing 
me  no  harm. 

6.  I  used  to  imagine,  during  auto-erotism,  that  I 
was  having  intercourse  with  one  of  the  opposite  sex. 
There  was  always,  I  think,  such  psychic  accompani- 
ment. 

7.  Suggestive  literature  especially  has  had  the  ef- 
fect of  arousing  the  passions ;  vaudeville  also  to  some 
extent,  but  less,  especially  of  late  years,  when  I  have 
gone  little  through  lack  of  more  than  occasional  inter- 
est. I  was  considerably  frightened  by  scare  literature 
for  a  number  of  years,  but  gradually  I  paid  little  at- 
tention to  it. 

8.  I  had  extra-marital  intercourse  for  a  few  months 
after  graduating  from  college,  but  never  with  prosti- 
tutes. Practised  only  with  one  girl  who,  through  lack 
of  early  instruction  and  on  account  of  her  strong  pas- 
sions, had  formed  the  habit  of  more  or  less  regular 
intercourse  with  several  of  her  boy  friends.  During 
the  time  we  were  together,  she  gradually  gave  up  in- 
tercourse with  others,  and  finally  we  stopped  ourselves 
by  mutual  consent.  I  have  not  had  intercourse  since 
(this  was  several  years  ago),  and  I  think  she  has  not. 


U8  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Sometimes  we  had  intercourse  every  day,  always  several 
times  a  week,  for  about  three  months.  Emissions  once 
in  two  or  three  weeks  if  I  do  not  masturbate. 

10.  No. 

11.  No. 

12.  The  cultivation  of  confidence  between  parent  and 
child,  the  teaching  that  the  child  can  always  have  his 
questions  answered  fully  and  without  shame,  instruc- 
tion shortly  before  puberty,  if  the  child  has  not  already 
asked  for  information  or  shown  signs  of  curiosity.  At 
present  I  am  in  very  good  health,  in  spite  of  leading 
a  sedentary  life  and  being  a  very  hard  student.  I  have 
had  four  years  of  college  and  three  years  of  university 
education.  I  have  been  successful  in  gaining  prizes, 
scholarships,  and  fellowships ;  so  that  it  is  evident  that 
my  health  has  not  been  impaired.  At  present  I  am  an 
instructor  in  a  state  university. 

Case  8 

1.  Male,  fifty-one,  hair  and  eyes  dark  brown. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  (a)  Thought  himself  defective  till  thirteen,  then 
had  first  sex  feeling,  with  boys  as  an  object,  (b)  Sug- 
gestion,     (c)    Infrequent. 

5.  Yes.  Mysterious  suggestions  of  boys  kept  him 
thinking  about  himself,  and  at  thirteen  produced  an 
emission.  Was  ashamed  and  secretive  instinctively. 
Masturbated  about  twice  a  month  until  fifteen,  then 
heard  a  lecture  on  sex  and  was  terribly  frightened, 
and  practically  stopped  masturbation.  When  about 
twenty-one,  after  spending  all  his  money  on  quacks, 
consulted  a  physician,  and  his  mind  was  relieved.  Be- 
fore this  he  had  thought  that  emissions  were  abnormal, 


CASE  HISTORIES  149 

that  they  were  the  unpardonable  sin,  and  that  he  was 
fast  going  to  his  grave.  After  this,  he  was  associated 
with  young  men  who  went  regularly  with  prostitutes, 
and  he  resumed  masturbation  about  once  a  week.  Later 
he  married  and  is  perfectly  sound ;  but  he  has  no  chil- 
dren and  has  always  considered  the  absence  of  them 
due  to  masturbation,  though  he  has  never  investigated 
to  find  whether  he  or  his  wife  was  sterile. 

6.  Had  daydreams  at  times  with  sex  content,  and 
when  masturbating  had  mental  pictures  of  an  ideal 
woman.     Quack  advertisements  caught  him. 

7.  Frightened  by  these  and  by  the  lecture,  had  a 
horror  of  consequences  and  still  had  fears  of  losing  his 
mind. 

8.  When  continent,  emissions  are  once  a  week,  occa- 
sionally more  frequently ;  and  then  nearly  wild  from 
fears  of  consequences. 

9.  Home  surroundings  of  the  best,  but  no  instruc- 
tion. 

12.  Full  talks  should  be  given  by  the  teacher,  par- 
ents, or  minister.  Suppress  absolutely  all  newspaper 
advertisements  on  sex  subjects. 

Note.  He  thought  intercourse  about  once  a  week 
about  right  for  him  and  people  in  general.  He  fears 
that  more  frequent  indulgence  in  early  years  has  in- 
jured him,  but  there  is  no  evidence  of  it. 

Case  13 

1.  Male,  eyes  blue,  hair  brown. 
%  Mother  had  quick  consumption. 

3.  No  sickness  except  measles  and  pneumonia  at 
nine  months. 

4.  Pictures  sexually  suggestive  shown  him  by  hired 
girl,  when  he  was  six  years  old,  but  he  had  no  sex  feel- 


150  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

ings.  When  he  was  ten,  three  girls,  respectively  ten, 
eleven,  and  thirteen  years  of  age,  wrote  vulgar  words 
for  him  to  read ;  but  he  had  no  sex  feelings.  From 
six  to  ten,  he  slept  in  room  with  his  father  and  mother. 
From  whispers  and  the  motions  of  the  bed,  he  guessed 
what  was  being  done,  but  he  was  twelve  before  he  knew 
where  children  came  from.  At  eleven,  he  had  strong 
sensations  of  sex  when  about  to  be  tardy  at  school,  but 
they  disappeared  without  culminating  in  orgasm,  after 
entering  school.  When  he  was  twelve,  a  boy  of  six- 
teen took  him  home  with  him  when  his  parents  were 
absent  and  showed  him  his  genital  organs  by  means 
of  a  concave  mirror,  and  got  him  to  do  the  same.  The 
boy  also  told  him  where  he  came  from,  and  how  men 
and  women  fitted  together,  etc. 

About  this  time  two  cousins  induced  him  to  sleep  with 
them,  and  they  felt  of  each  other's  genitals,  obtaining 
erections  and  pleasurable  sensations  but  no  orgasm. 
The  same  year,  the  boy  above  mentioned  played  with 
his  penis  in  his  presence  and  got  him  to  do  the  same, 
though  there  was  still  no  orgasm.  Soon  he  obtained 
one  when  with  a  neighbor's  boy  who  told  him  what  fun 
it  was.  This  boy  had  been  taught  by  an  aunt  of  six- 
teen to  masturbate,  and  later  to  have  intercourse  with 
her.  She  married  later  and  has  been  a  good  woman. 
He  began  at  fourteen  to  masturbate  in  secret,  and  ob- 
tained orgasm  but  no  semen  till  he  was  sixteen.  For 
two  years,  when  masturbating,  he  always  imagined  him- 
self having  intercourse  with  a  certain  girl  of  his  ac- 
quaintance. At  fifteen,  several  girls  in  the  neighbor- 
hood tried  to  seduce  him  to  intercourse,  but  he  refused. 
Shame  was  instinctive,  he  was  always  secretive,  and 
began  trying  to  give  up  practice  at  sixteen,  when  a 
boy  of  eighteen  said,  "  You  and  I  and  the  other  fellows 


CASE  HISTORIES  151 

have  been  masturbating,  but  must  give  it  up."  This 
boy  give  him  a  book  to  read,  picturing  the  awful  re- 
sults of  masturbation,  and  he  also  ran  across  quack 
advertisements  at  this  time.  He  had  previously  mas- 
turbated about  twice  a  week,  so  he  was  not  too  much 
frightened  by  the  accounts  he  read  of  those  who  had 
done  it  two  or  three  times  a  day.  He  reduced  the  fre- 
quency to  about  once  a  week.  This  continued  till  nine- 
teen, when  it  was  still  further  reduced  to  about  once 
in  two  weeks.  Later  came  an  added  feeling  of  respon- 
sibility, and  he  discontinued  the  practice  entirely  for 
a  short  time,  until  he  went  to  board  where  a  young 
woman  took  care  of  his  room.  He  soon  had  an  emis- 
sion and  another  in  two  weeks.  Feeling  ashamed  of 
this,  he  anticipated  the  emissions  by  masturbating  about 
once  in  two  weeks,  but  stopped  entirely  for  one  year 
before  his  marriage. 

7.  No  daydreams,  saw  no  vaudeville,  but  read  The 
Police  News,  which  was  a  strong  sex  stimulant. 

12.  A  mother  should  keep  young  and  in  close  touch 
with  her  daughters.  Boys  never  should  be  scared  and 
should  receive  their  sex  information  at  home,  rather 
than  on  the  street. 

Case  58 

1.  Male,  forty-two  years,  dark  hair,  gray  eyes. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  (a)  After  puberty,  he  had  feelings  toward  other 
sex.  (b)  Suggested,  (c)  None  before,  occasionally 
after. 

5.  Yes,  suggested.  Shame  and  secretiveness  instinc- 
tive. When  about  seventeen  he  began  to  try- to  give 
up  the  practice,  as  thought  it  not  a  good  thing  to  do. 


152  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Was  successful  after  three  years.     Practice  has  had 
no  known  effect. 

6.  No  daydreams  and  act  was  physical,  without 
psychic  accompaniment. 

7.  Worried  much  till  information  gained  on  subject. 

8.  Emissions  once  in  ten  days  to  two  weeks.  More 
frequent  when  exercising  violently.  Can  remember  no 
dreams  accompanying  emissions,  but  talks  in  sleep  when 
overtired. 

9.  He  kept  busy  till  puberty,  and  about  this  time 
took  up  atliletic  training  in  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  heard 
talks  on  sex  subjects,  some  of  which  were  exciting; 
but  on  the  whole  they  were  good.  Later  he  read 
Sperry's  books  on  sex  subjects. 

10.  11,  12.  Whenever  possible,  full  instructions 
should  come  from  the  parents,  age  of  instruction  differ- 
ing with  the  intellectual  needs  of  the  boy.  Appeal  to 
the  boy's  interest.  Suggest  that  masturbation  may 
dwarf  physically,  but  do  not  scare  him.  Have  the 
teaching  largely  ethical.  A  father  often  feels  incom- 
petent to  teach  sex.  The  physician  ought  to,  but 
usually  does  not  do  so. 

13.  Worry  does  more  damage  than  anything  else. 

Case  59 

1.  Male,  twenty-eight  years,  hazel  eyes,  auburn  hair. 

2.  Yes. 
S.  Yes. 

4.  (a)  At  puberty.  (b)  Spontaneous.  (c)  Two 
or  three  times  a  week. 

5.  Yes.  Spontaneous,  at  fourteen.  From  twice  a 
week  to  twice  a  month.  Usually  about  once  a  week. 
Instinctively  ashamed  and  secretive.  After  three  years 
he  began  to  try  to  give  up  masturbation  and  he  was 


CASE  HISTORIES  153 

successful    after   several   years    of   gradual    reduction. 

6.  Pictures  at  times  of  females,  but  mostly  a  phys- 
ical act. 

7.  Excessive  worry,  much  increased  by  quack  litera- 
ture which  strengthened  the  belief  that  physical  degen- 
eracy and  consumption  would  ensue.  No  vaudeville, 
no  erotic  literature. 

8.  No  extra-marital  intercourse.  Emissions  from 
once  a  month,  to  two  in  six  months. 

9.  Good  home,  but  no  counsel  in  sex  matters,  and  no 
suggestions  from  schoolmates. 

12.  Parents  or  guardians  should  have  the  confidence 
of  the  child  and  should  begin  to  instruct  as  soon  as  the 
child  begins  to  ask  questions,  but  no  detailed  instruc- 
tion should  be  given  until  puberty. 

Case  309 

1.  Female,  fortyfive  years,  auburn  hair,  blue  eyes. 
8.  Yes. 

CASE    HISTORY 

She  began  to  menstruate  at  the  age  of  eleven.  Since 
she  had  not  been  warned  of  this  by  her  mother,  she 
thought  she  was  bleeding  to  death.  When  she  told  her 
mother,  the  mother  merely  told  her  that  this  was  some- 
thing all  women  had  to  go  through.  Twice  before  mar- 
riage and  once  after,  aside  from  her  pregnane}',  there 
were  three  months  between  menstrual  periods. 

When  she  was  six  or  eight  years  of  age,  her  father 
began  to  masturbate  her  by  titillating  her  clitoris,  and 
he  kept  this  up  as  occasion  offered  until  she  was  fif- 
teen or  sixteen.  She  always  hated  him,  but  was  greatly 
excited  by  this  practice.  She  began  to  masturbate 
when  about  nine,  and  pursued  this  practice  more  espe- 


154  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

cially  when  taking  a  bath.  The  practice  continued  a 
few  times  a  month  till  her  marriage  at  thirty-one.  She 
thought  it  was  not  right,  but  she  did  it  just  the  same. 
She  has  had  some  voluptuous  dreams,  and  even  had 
them  occasionally  after  marriage  when  sleeping  with 
her  husband.  Occasionally,  by  letting  her  imagination 
loose,  she  has  obtained  an  orgasm  with  no  manipulations. 
When  she  became  engaged  to  a  man  she  had  known  a 
long  time,  her  father,  who  was  brilliant  and  gentle- 
manly, but  impractical  and  flighty,  refused  absolutely 
to  allow  her  to  marry  him,  and  without  apparent  rea- 
son. Some  time  afterwards,  her  father  got  involved 
with  a  woman,  and  her  mother  became  insane  shortly 
after  finding  this  out. 

Later,  another  man  became  engaged  to  her,  and  she 
determined  to  marry  him  and  did  so,  in  spite  of  her 
father's  furious  protests.  She  told  her  husband  of 
her  father's  practice.  On  her  wedding  night  she  be- 
came hysterical  and  cried  a  good  deal.  They  had  in- 
tercourse, which  made  her  wild  with  desire,  but  she 
could  not  obtain  an  orgasm.  After  a  few  days,  her 
husband  began  to  manipulate  her  breasts  and  clitoris 
before  intercourse,  after  which  she  very  readily  ob- 
tained an  orgasm.  They  had  intercourse  every  day 
for  a  few  weeks  and  after  that  two  or  three  times  a 
week. 

She  was  lacerated  by  instrumental  delivery  of  her 
child  fifteen  months  after  marriage.  Laceration  was 
not  repaired  for  ten  years.  Then  a  perfectly  success- 
ful operation  was  performed.  After  the  birth  of  her 
child,  her  husband  began  practicing  coitus  interruptus, 
but  he  usually  satisfied  her.  She  always  wanted  more 
children  and  no  precautions  were  taken  after  the  oper- 
ation until  recently,  when  her  husband  began  to  with- 


CASE  HISTORIES  155 

draw.  He  began  treating  her  badly  and  she  became 
somewhat  hysterical  and  excitable,  but  probably  not 
more  so  than  he.  Finally  he  discontinued  intercourse, 
without  explanation.  She  always  had  been  moderately 
erotic,  and  suffered  on  account  of  this.  She  always 
had  stronger  desire  at  her  menstrual  periods  and  her 
husband  had  greater  desire  also  at  those  times.  She 
was  laid  up  a  month  after  her  operation,  during  which 
time  both  she  and  her  husband  were  sexually  excited 
and  masturbated  each  other  several  times.  They  did 
this  also  at  times  when  she  was  menstruating.  It  would 
take  but  a  minute  or  two  to  obtain  the  orgasm,  when 
at  other  times  it  would  take  about  twenty  minutes. 

Sent  away  on  account  of  her  nervousness,  she  im- 
mediately recovered  when  it  was  explained  to  her  that 
moderate  auto-erotic  relief  was  fully  justifiable,  under 
the  circumstances.  She  had  resorted  to  this  on  a  few 
occasions  when  she  had  been  unable  to  sleep  and  had 
had  intense  pain  in  the  ovaries,  but  was  deeply  ashamed 
of  this  and  much  worried  about  it.  She  remained  well, 
in  spite  of  her  husband's  evident  desire  to  have  her 
considered  mentally  unbalanced,  and  in  spite  of  his 
refusing  to  live  with  her. 

Case  312 

Male,  seventeen  years  old.  His  parents  always  had 
been  in  good  health.  He  broke  down  nervously  while 
attending  high  school,  one  year  previous  to  going  away 
for  treatment.  He  was  very  self-conscious,  cried  a 
good  deal,  showed  no  ambition,  and  would  not  talk, 
even  to  his  parents,  kept  picking  his  face  and  almost 
constantly  kept  his  hand  over  his  mouth.  He  had  been 
a  good  student,  was  fond  of  birds,  flowers,  and  trees, 
familiar  with  Thoreau,  Emerson,  Walt  Whitman,  and 


156  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Burroughs.  He  had  a  slight  attack  of  infantile  paral- 
ysis when  he  was  one  year  old;  and  his  left  leg  was 
slightly  smaller  than  his  right  and  had  a  tendency 
to  walk  on  the  outside  of  his  foot.  At  present  he  will 
not  read,  insists  on  lying  in  bed,  constipated,  very 
thin,  unwilling  to  eat.  An  elongated  and  tight  prepuce, 
impossible  to  expose  glans.  He  was  encouraged  to 
talk,  made  to  eat,  the  prepuce  was  dilated,  and  adhe- 
sions broken  up,  and  two  teaspoonfuls  of  smegma  were 
removed. 

The  following  history  was  given :  When  about  nine, 
the  boys  in  school  told  him  of  having  intercourse  with 
the  girls.  He  tried  this  with  two  of  his  sisters.  Later, 
he  became  intimate  with  another  girl  and  they  handled 
each  other's  genitals,  though  he  had  no  orgasm  at  that 
time.  After  this,  he  and  his  brother  three  years  older 
indulged  somewhat  in  mutual  masturbation.  He  no- 
ticed first  semen  at  sixteen.  The  emission  came  with- 
out sexual  excitement,  immediately  after  urination. 
Several  times  he  had  noticed  emissions  this  way  without 
any  sensation,  but  masturbated  occasionally.  Has  had 
some  emissions  in  sleep  while  dreaming  of  girls. 

This  history  was  given  after  the  physician  had 
guessed  that  sex  matters  were  troubling  him  and  had 
told  him  never  to  worry  about  masturbation  or  any 
little  escapades  with  girls  in  school  when  he  was  a  small 
boy.  He  immediately  burst  out  in  a  violent  paroxysm 
of  weeping,  which  lasted  fifteen  minutes.  When  he  re- 
covered from  this,  he  told  about  his  experiences  with 
his  sisters  and  the  other  girl,  and  said,  "  Oh,  can  I  for- 
get these  things  ?  "  He  was  greatly  relieved  by  this 
conversation.  At  the  first  conversation  he  had  not 
been  definite  about  his  experiences,  and  had  not  given 
the  impression  that  any  of  the  girls  had  been  his  sis- 


CASE  HISTORIES  157 

ters.  Two  days  later,  he  said  that  two  of  the  girls 
were  his  sisters  and  told  of  mutual  masturbation  with 
his  brother.  After  another  period  of  violent  crying, 
he  was  again  greatly  relieved.  There  were  a  few  judi- 
cious conversations  at  intervals  of  a  few  days.  He  at 
once  began  to  eat  voluntarily,  his  shyness  and  manner- 
isms disappeared.  One  month  from  the  beginning  of 
treatment,  he  was  sufficiently  recovered  to  return  home 
and  take  up  his  accustomed  duties.  He  continued 
happy,  industrious,  and  free  from  any  nervous  diffi- 
culty. 

NOTE    ON    CASES    OF    ALCOHOLISM 

In  my  neurological  practice,  I  formerly  treated  some 
two  hundred  and  fifty  alcoholics.  The  circumstances 
were  such  and  the  time  so  limited  that  I  was  unable  to 
make  regularly  any  reliable  sex  investigations  with 
these  patients.  I  frequently  did,  however,  make  some 
attempts  in  this  direction ;  and  especially  when  an  other- 
wise moral,  successful,  and  stable  man  was  addicted  to 
alcohol,  did  I  look  beyond  the  alcohol  for  the  cause  of 
the  trouble.  I  found  it  useless  to  attempt  to  treat 
an  alcohohc  and  leave  a  disturbing  domestic  complex 
untouched.  I  became  satisfied  also  that  what  I  said 
to  many  young  men  concerning  the  sex  question  helped 
them  to  a  life  of  total  abstinence  as  much  as,  if  not 
more  than,  any  medical  treatment,  though  this  is  largely 
inference.  I  submit  two  sample  cases  which  might  have 
been  diagnosed  with  equal  propriety :  alcoholism,  neu- 
rosis, or  marital  infelicity. 

313    CASE    HISTORY,    ALCOHOLIC 

A  man  of  superior  ability,  married  and  with  several 
children,  earning  a  high  salary,  in  a  responsible  posi- 
tion, became  addicted  to  alcohol,  lost  his  position,  was 


158  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

abandoned  by  his  family  and  friends  and  became  a 
common  drunkard.  Strangers,  kinder  than  his  own 
wealthy  kin,  attempted  his  regeneration.  The  disease 
was  cured,  his  appetite  for  liquor  was  destroyed,  his 
ambition  to  fill  a  man's  place  returned,  but  at  this  junc- 
ture his  wife  refused  to  return  to  him  until  he  had,  by 
a  year's  abstinence,  demonstrated  his  sincerity.  How 
fatal  such  a  course  would  be  to  proving  his  sincerity, 
all  who  know  human  nature  must  realize.  Years  later, 
this  man's  wife  told  me  that  she  had  not  forgotten  my 
severe  criticism,  which  she  said  was  the  most  cruel  and 
sweeping  that  she  had  suffered  in  all  her  life.  How- 
ever unkind  it  may  have  been,  I  am  pleased  to  say  that 
she  relented,  and  he  went  back  to  live  with  his  family 
and  to  fill  a  remunerative  position. 

After  five  years  she  herself  appealed  to  me.  He 
had  met  an  old  friend  and  had  fallen  from  grace.  He 
again  was  restored  to  the  ranks  of  sobriety  and  indus- 
try. He  has  remained  there  several  years,  and  un- 
doubtedly, this  time,  he  will  remain  there  permanently. 

This  woman's  confidence  in  one  who  had  so  severely 
castigated  her  made  possible  the  exploration  of  the 
inner  lives  of  this  couple.  A  romantic  attachment  in 
the  beginning  early  lost  some  of  its  glamour  from  the 
ordinary  sex  fear  and  reticence  of  the  ordinary  young 
"wife,  coupled  with  the  ordinary  passion,  sex  ignorance, 
and  lack  of  tact  of  the  ordinary  young  husband.  It 
was  but  a  step  from  the  strain  of  business  affairs  and 
mild  domestic  infelicity  to  the  delusive  solace  of  the 
cup  which  does  not  permanently  cheer.  Naturally, 
this  added  fuel  to  the  small  flame  of  domestic  estrange- 
ment, made  his  downfall  rapid.  There  was  no  com- 
plete understanding  after  his  return  to  his  home.  The 
wife  had  less  confidence  in  him  than  formerly,  in  addi- 


CASE  HISTORIES  159 

tion  to  retaining  her  early  contempt  and  intolerance 
of  sex.  Her  nature,  fundamentally  normal,  became,  as 
many  would  say,  increasingly  frigid ;  but  in  my  lan- 
guage, a  normal  erotic  nature  had,  through  false  no- 
tions, repression,  and  lack  of  confidence,  been  substi- 
tuted temporarily  by  too  much  criticism,  irritability, 
and  sexual  indifference.  Of  course  the  changes  in  the 
husband  were  similar,  renewing  the  old  desire  to  escape 
constant  sexual  deprivation  and  business  cares  in  the 
temporary  oblivion  which  alcohol  brings.  His  meeting 
with  the  old  friend  was  but  the  culmination  of  a  situa- 
tion which  long  had  been  developing. 

It  is  useless  to  repeat  the  details  of  my  conversation 
and  precepts.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  wife,  who  al- 
ready was  incipiently  neurotic,  saw  the  utility  of  un- 
distorted  nature,  and  rejected  beliefs  long  held,  for 
truths  indubitable.  Visions  of  normal  love  and  mutual 
tenderness  supplanted  critical  irritability,  and  influ- 
enced her  to  apply  common  sense  and  studious  effort 
toward  rekindling  an  old  romance.  Of  course  he  also 
became  sensible  of  many  unwitting  errors,  which  he 
strove  to  correct,  along  with  the  grievous  ones  which 
he  had  committed.  One  need  have  little  fear  of  neu- 
rosis or  alcoholism  or  any  but  unavoidable  calamities 
in  such  a  regenerated  family,  which  came  into  being 
over  twenty  years  after  the  clergyman's  pronuncia- 
mento. 

314    CASE    HISTORY,    ALCOHOLIC 

This  was  the  case  of  a  young  business  man  in  the 
thirties,  who  had  a  wife  and  two  small  children.  Busi- 
ness had  been  strenuous,  and  the  financial  outlook  not 
bright.  Husband  and  wife  were  in  love  and  well  mated, 
but  he  did  not  know  that  a  young  mother,  with  two 
small  children,  and  many  household  cares,  would  re- 


160  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

spond  less  frequently  to  his  sex  demands  than  a  care- 
free wife  before  the  children  came,  especially  when  the 
former  response  had  been  an  inevitable  out-cropping  of 
love  and  nature,  in  spite  of  those  old,  early-implanted 
ideas  of  sex  shame  and  fear  which  have  wrecked  the 
lives  of  so  many  of  the  best  women.  Social  drinking 
led  to  debauch  when  business  cares  and  sex  restraint 
became  oppressive.  Now  a  physician  told  him  he  had 
Bright's  Disease  and  was  not  long  for  this  earth  (alco- 
holics often  have  a  transient  albuminuria),  and  he  rap- 
idly reached  a  stage  of  hallucinations  that  would  shame 
Dore's  conception  of  Dante's  imagination.  But  while 
this  stage  was  developing,  he  became  temporarily  im- 
potent, from  alcoholic  excess,  and  his  wife,  when  not 
too  much  worried,  tired,  or  grieved,  felt  nature's  de- 
mand for  the  old  caresses,  which  he  was  now  unable 
to  give.  His  humiliation  and  her  unsatisfied  neurotic 
condition  hastened  the  descensus  averni,  which  now  be- 
came a  debacle.  His  psychosis  had  begun,  hers  was 
impending. 

Within  three  weeks  he  returned  to  his  home,  resumed 
a  bankrupt  business,  immediately  made  good  and  now, 
after  nine  years,  is  a  happy  and  prosperous  man,  with 
a  delightful  and  happy  family.  Let  no  one  think  for 
a  moment  that  medical  procedures  which  have  proved 
most  efficacious  were  the  sole  or  the  determining  cause 
of  this  transition.  During  this  treatment  it  was  neces- 
sary, by  reassuring  suggestions,  to  remove  all  fears  of 
possible  nephritis.  Afterward,  it  was  necessary  to  as- 
sist both  parties  by  sympathetic  and  somewhat  sophisti- 
cated explanations  in  smoothing  out  the  sex  maladjust- 
ments which  had  resulted  from  idiopathic  characteris- 
tics or  acquired  misinformation. 

Verbum  sat  sapienti,  it  is  not  necessary  to  multiply 


CASE  HISTORIES  161 

details  when  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  In  alcoholism,  as 
much  as  in  any  neurosis,  psychological  therapeutics  is 
as  necessary,  or  more  necessary  than  medicinal  treat- 
ment. In  my  experience,  sex  psychology  is  the  brand 
most  often  necessary  to  the  successful  treatment  of 
these  cases.  The  prudish  timidity  and  false  modesty 
of  a  tradition-bound  public  too  long  has  furnished  an 
excuse  for  medical  neglect  of  human  maladjustments, 
which  are  prevailingly  fundamental  causes  of  misery, 
crime,  and  neurosis. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
SEX  HISTORIES 

Case  a 

1.  Male,  twenty-six  years,  hair  and  eyes  black. 

2.  Sound. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  At  the  age  of  fifteen,  while  taking  a  bath  he  had 
an  erection,  and  immediately  an  emission.  Emissions 
occurred  about  once  a  week  for  several  weeks.  Alto- 
gether, he  had  about  one  dozen  spontaneous  emissions 
when  awake  (one  such  in  school  without  an  erection) 
and  one-half  dozen  emissions  in  sleep,  (a)  None  be- 
fore puberty,      (b)   Spontaneous,      (c)    See  above. 

5.  Soon  after  the  above  experience,  he  made  up  his 
mind  to  go  out  with  girls,  as  the  other  boys  did,  but 
soon  had  a  talk  with  a  physician  which  influenced  him 
not  to  do  this.  He  began  to  masturbate  soon  after 
the  first  emission.  This  was  entirely  spontaneous,  and 
at  first  it  occurred  about  once  a  week,  later  increasing 
to  three  or  four  times  a  day  some  days,  perhaps  con- 
tinuing thus  for  a  week  at  a  time,  followed  by  absti- 
nence for  a  week.  Shame  and  secretiveness  were  in- 
stinctive. He  began  to  try  to  give  up  the  practice 
when  about  seventeen.  He  was  influenced  to  do  this 
by  the  talk  of  the  physician  and  by  medical  literature. 
He  was  never  entirely  successful.  For  a  time  forfeited 
a  nickel  to  his  sister's  bank  every  time  he  masturbated, 
also  deprived  himself  of  smoking  for  twenty-four  hours 
after  each  transgression. 

6.  As  a  boy,  slight  cruelties  to  animals,  thinking  of 

162 


SEX  HISTORIES  163 

girls,  and  smoking  all  stimulated  erotic  feelings.  The 
sexual  fancies  were  not  of  girls  well-known  or  cared 
about.  There  were  frequent  daydreams  with  sex  con- 
tent. 

7.  He  worried  to  some  extent  for  fear  that  insanity 
"would  result  from  this  practice,  but  the  chief  and  con- 
stant worr^'  was  in  regard  to  the  moral  degradation 
resulting  from  it.  He  was  somewhat  worried  by  quack 
literature  and  stimulated  by  erotic  literature.  At  a 
later  period,  vaudeville  was  a  sex  stimulant. 

8.  He  never  had  intercourse.  Emissions  described 
under  4. 

9.  10,  11.  As  the  result  of  worry,  he  developed  a 
condition  of  nervousness,  discouragement,  and  hyster- 
ical tendency. 

11,  12,  13.  Note.  A  boy  in  college  attempted  to 
teach  him  masturbation,  and  he  did  not  undeceive  him 
by  telling  him  that  he  already  knew  all  about  it.  Some 
years  later,  a  university  professor  invited  him  to  stay 
with  him  over  night.  After  retiring,  the  professor  at- 
tempted to  masturbate  him.  This  was  refused  but 
finally  allowed  on  this  and  the  succeeding  night,  but 
it  was  not  mutual.  About  a  year  later,  this  same  pro- 
fessor arranged  a  meeting  and  made  similar  overtures. 
They  had  a  long  talk  as  to  whether  masturbation  was 
right  or  wrong.  He  finally  consented  once  to  mutual 
masturbation.  Although  this  professor  endeavored  on 
several  occasions  to  arrange  meetings  later,  he  refused 
absolutely  to  have  anything  further  to  do  with  him. 

When  he  was  very  young,  he  became  engaged,  on  short 
acquaintance,  to  a  girl  several  years  older.  Both  be- 
came erotically  excited  and  had  orgasms  several  times 
as  the  result  of  kissing  and  caressing,  but  no  thought 
of  intercourse.     This  engagement  was  soon  broken. 


164.  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

He  was  next  much  attached  to  a  girl  who  refused  to 
marry  him.  During  this  time  there  were  three  periods 
of  six  weeks  each  when  he  neither  masturbated  nor  had 
emissions.  He  next  became  engaged  to  another  girl, 
also  much  older  than  he.  He  talked  over  his  sex  ex- 
periences and  sufferings  with  her,  and  she  sometimes 
advised  his  going  out  with  women  and  then  immediately 
advised  against  it.  She  even  gave  him  to  understand 
that  she  would  do  something  for  his  relief,  but  neither 
one  of  them  dreamed  of  intercourse.  Once  when  out 
walking  with  her,  he  had  a  spontaneous  emission.  This 
led  him  to  think  that  his  love  for  her  was  too  sensual, 
and  when  she  became  indifferent,  the  engagement  was 
broken. 

Later  he  was  somewhat  interested  in  another  woman 
older  than  himself,  who  had  been  once  married,  to  whom 
he  also  told  his  history,  and  she  exclaimed,  "  Oh,  you 
poor  boy !     Go  out  and  do  as  the  other  men  do." 

Immediately  after,  she  told  him  never  to  do  anything 
of  the  kind.  Soon  after  this,  he  got  hold  of  modern 
literature  and  advice  which  convinced  him  of  the  harm- 
lessness  of  moderate  masturbation,  and  that  under 
some  circumstances  it  was  no  transgression  against 
good  morals.  His  mind  was  immediately  relieved,  and 
his  sexual  desire  and  relief  were  reduced  about  one- 
half.  ^He  also  abandoned  at  once  the  various  dissi- 
pations he  had  indulged  in  as  preventives  of  masturba- 
tion, and  he  shortly  met  and  fell  in  love  with  a  girl 
several  years  younger  than  himself.  They  were  soon 
engaged  and  married  a  few  months  later.  They  have 
been  very  happy. 


SEX  HISTORIES  165 

Case  b 

1.  Male,  eighteen  years,  hair  black,  eyes  brown. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  First  sex  feelings  at  nine,  (a)  At  sixteen  for 
girls,  (b)  Suggested,  (c)  Occasionally  before  pu- 
berty, frequently  after. 

5.  Yes,  at  nine,  taught  by  boy  three  years  older. 
Once  in  a  week  or  two  until  puberty.  At  fourteen  first 
emission  and  worry  about  this.  For  a  time  now  mas- 
turbated once  or  twice  a  week.  At  fifteen  or  sixteen 
once  a  day.  Read  medical  book  (Park's  Human  Sex- 
uality) which  led  to  much  worry  about  results  of  prac- 
tice. In  spite  of  this,  there  was  an  increase  in  sexual 
excitement,  and  though  every  effort  was  made  to  stop 
masturbation,  it  increased  in  frequency,  being  more 
than  once  a  day  at  this  time. 

6.  At  first  it  was  largely  physical,  then  there  were 
mental  pictures  of  girls.  He  was  sexually  excited  by 
"  loose  "  girls  at  cheap  dances. 

7.  As  result  of  reading  medical  book,  he  feared  in- 
juring health  and  feared  mental  trouble.  Fears  ceased 
after  his  talk  with  the  doctor. 

8.  Never  had  intercourse. 

9.  Instructed  in  sex  matters  by  a  physician  when 
about  seventeen.  He  was  advised  to  keep  away  from 
cheap  dances,  never  to  have  intercourse  till  marriage, 
and  told  that  masturbation,  if  the  impulse  could  not  be 
resisted,  was  not  disgraceful  and  entirely  harmless. 
After  that,  he  went  with  good  girls  and  had  no  sex 
disturbance  in  their  company.  Worries  and  slight 
nervous  symptoms  immediately  disappeared.  The  im- 
pulse   to    masturbate    immediately    decreased.     There 


166  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

would  be  great  excitement  and  masturbation  once  a  day 
for  three  to  six  successive  days,  then  entire  absence 
of  erotic  feelings  or  any  thought  about  the  subject  of 
sex  for  a  week  or  two  at  a  time,  when  the  period  of 
excitement  like  the  above  would  again  occur. 

Case  c 

1.  Female,  twenty-five  years,  hair  black,  eyes  brown. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  At    ten    or    eleven,      (a)   .      (b)   Suggested. 

Occasional  before  puberty  and  occasional  after,  but 
strongest  at  time  of  menstruation. 

5.  Yes.  When  about  ten  or  eleven,  she  saw  her 
brothers  urinate  while  they  were  out  berrying,  and  felt 
erotic  excitement.  Once  another  boy  called  to  them, 
asking  the  boys  if  their  sister  was  there,  and  the  an- 
swer being  "  Yes,"  he  said,  significantly,  that  he  would 
be  right  up.  She  understood  the  hidden  meaning,  and 
became  sexually  excited.  Presently,  she  went  away 
from  the  rest  and  masturbated  by  titillation  of  the 
clitoris  with  a  small  twig.  She  had  excited  herself  in 
some  such  manner  a  few  times  before  this,  but  this  in- 
cident stands  out  very  clearly  in  her  memory,  as  the 
excitement  was  intense.  She  began  to  menstruate 
when  about  fourteen,  having  been  told  about  it  before 
by  her  mother,  who  had  also  warned  her  when  a  little 
girl  to  keep  away  from  bad-talking  boys  and  girls 
and  to  come  to  her  for  any  information  she  wished. 
Her  mother  now  told  her  about  conception,  and  told  her 
to  avoid  being  free  with  men  and  boys.  She  again 
promised  to  answer  any  questions  whenever  she  wished 
to  ask  them,  but  told  her  to  avoid  talking  these  things 
over  with  other  girls,  which  she  always  refused  to  do. 


SEX  HISTORIES  167 

When  sex  matters  were  spolcen  of  in  her  presence,  she 
ahvays  refused  to  listen,  and  so  obtained  no  outside 
information.  Was  instinctively  secretive,  and  some- 
what ashamed. 

6.  After  puberty,  she  had  mental  pictures  of  boys 
when  indulging  in  auto-erotism.  Some  daydreams  with 
sex  content. 

7.  No  sex  worries,  of  any  amount,  since  she  felt,  from 
her  mother's  talk,  that  she  always  could  go  to  her  for 
information  or  advice  when  she  really  needed  it.  She 
always  had  a  great  longing  for  babies.  When  about 
sixteen,  and  having  erotic  desire  during  menstruation, 
she  accidentally  discovered  that  the  nipples  were  sensi- 
tive, and  from  this  time  on  seemed  to  forget  about  the 
clitoris  and  obtained  a  sort  of  orgasm  by  titillation 
of  the  nipples  when  erotic  feelings  were  strong.  The 
process  lasted  about  a  half  hour,  and  the  practice  was 
resorted  to  chiefly  at  about  time  of  menstruation. 

8.  No  intercourse.     Occasional  voluptuous  dreams. 

9.  Answered  above. 

10.  No  nervous  troubles. 

12.  Parents  should  talk  sex  matters  over  freely  with 
their  children. 

Note.  Once  at  a  party  a  boy  tried  to  put  his  hand 
under  her  dress.  She  was  terribly  frightened  and  drove 
him  away,  though  he  tried  in  vain  to  obtain  her  for- 
giveness. She  had  a  long  cry  after  this,  and  alwaj's 
afterward  had  an  antipathy  for  this  boy.  She  had  no 
erotic  feeling  during  or  after  this  incident.  Her 
fright  and  resistance  were  the  result  of  her  mother's 
warning.  After  she  began  to  go  with  the  young  man 
to  whom  she  was  later  engaged,  her  erotic  feelings  in- 
creased and  she  stimulated  the  nipples  more  often,  but 
this  did  not  satisfy  as  formerly.     She  had  headaches 


168  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  was  somewhat  nervous,  had  occasional  cries  and 
was  somewhat  hysterical.  She  now  had  a  talk  with 
her  mother  and  with  a  physician,  and  read  some  plain 
talk  on  sex  subjects.  After  this,  when  erotic  excite- 
ment was  excessive,  she  practiced  auto-erotism  occa- 
sionally by  titillation  of  the  clitoris  or  in  a  Lucea-like 
manner.  This  was  done  several  times  just  before  men- 
struation and  about  once  a  week  for  the  rest  of  the 
month.  Headaches,  hysterical  symptoms,  and  slight 
mannerisms  largely  disappeared,  and  she  continued  in 
perfect  health. 

Case  d 

1.  Female,  seventy  years  old,  eyes  blue,  hair  brown. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  She  never  was  told  by  mother  about  menstruation. 
The  first  menstruation  began  in  school.  Much  fright- 
ened, she  told  the  young  man  teacher  that  she  thought 
she  was  bleeding  to  death,  and  she  would  have  to  go 
home.  She  always  felt  ashamed  to  meet  him  after  this. 
Her  first  sexual  feelings  were  at  seventeen,  when  a  man 
of  thirty-eight  began  to  pay  her  attentions.  Her  feel- 
ings were  very  strong,  but  she  did  not  yield  to  them  till 
marriage  at  nineteen.  Two  or  three  days  after  mar- 
riage, she  had  perfect  orgasm  and  though  her  husband 
was  very  passionate,  she  always  welcomed  his  atten- 
tions and  always  had  an  orgasm.  After  four  years  she 
detected  her  husband  with  another  woman,  and  she 
insisted  on  separate  apartments  for  the  six  years  that 
they  lived  together  after  this. 

5.  No  masturbation  as  a  child,  and  none  anyway  ex- 
cept when  waking  at  night  in  the  midst  of  a  voluptuous 
dream.     Always  terribly  afraid  that  she  was  immoral 


SEX  HISTORIES  169 

because  she  had  such  dreams,  and  because  she  some- 
times assisted  the  orgasm  at  such  times. 

6.  Nothing. 

7.  Her  mother  told  her  that  masturbation  or  any 
sex  thought  or  actions  were  most  dangerous  and  dis- 
graceful. She  has  worried  and  felt  ashamed  all  her 
life  because  of  her  nocturnal  experiences. 

8.  She  was  frightened  by  her  mother.  She  never 
had  any  irregular  intercourse.  After  seventeen,  she 
had  dreams  with  orgasm  every  two  or  three  weeks  until 
marriage.  When  living  apart  from  her  husband  and 
when  not  living  with  her  second  husband,  she  has  had 
these  dreams  sometimes  much  more  frequently,  and 
even  now,  at  seventy,  has  them  about  once  in  two  weeks. 
She  has  suffered  terribly  at  her  menstrual  periods  from 
sexual  desire,  and  also  frequently  at  other  times. 

9.  Fear  from  mother's  talks. 

10.  No  nervous  troubles. 

11.  12.  Children  should  be  taught  early  about  sex, 
and  not  frightened. 

NOTE 

During  the  six  years  after  she  discovered  that  her 
husband  was  unfaithful,  they  lived  in  the  same  house, 
but  though  she  suffered  the  most  exquisite  torture,  she 
never  would  have  intercourse  with  him  again.  Her  hus- 
band, who  was  much  older  than  she,  had  had  many  sex- 
ual experiences  before  his  marriage,  and  told  her  that, 
though  he  loved  her  as  much  as  he  could  any  woman, 
he  could  not  be  faithful  to  her,  if  she  were  an  angel  from 
Heaven.  His  promiscuous  career  was  such  that  he  once 
claimed  to  have  had  relations  with  all  nationalities  but 
one. 

She  left  him  ten  years  after  they  were  married,  he 


170  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

died,  and  she  married  again.  She  was  extremely  erotic 
this  time,  but  her  husband  was  peculiar  and  often  cold. 
He  also  later  went  with  other  women,  and  she  finally 
left  him.  At  forty-two  she  was  taken  with  typhoid 
fever  while  menstruating,  and  was  ill  a  long  time. 
After  recovery,  she  never  menstruated  again.  Was 
very  erotic  up  to  the  time  of  change  of  life  and  would 
have  practiced  auto-erotism  extensively,  if  not  for  the 
fear  inspired  by  her  mother.  Since  the  change,  she 
has  had  more  erotic  feeling  than  before,  if  anything, 
and  there  is  no  change  now,  at  seventy.  Her  sad  ex- 
periences have  not  soured  her,  and  she  is  still  cheer- 
ful, optimistic,  and  in  good  health.  She  even  looks 
forward  to  marrying  again. 

She  reports  the  case  of  a  cousin  who  at  sixty  mar- 
ried a  man  of  thirty-five.  This  cousin  is  essentially 
of  her  own  temperament  and  always  has  had  strong 
and  frequent  erotic  feelings.  She  and  her  husband 
are  very  happy  and  an  unusually  devoted  couple. 

NOTE    BY    AUTHOR 

Here  seems  to  be  a  suitable  place  to  mention  the  case 
of  a  woman  I  have  known  many  years.  She  was  almost 
identical  in  erotic  temperament  with  the  above,  and 
suffered  much  when  her  husband  became  impotent, 
though  she  was  fifty-five.  After  his  death,  she  married 
a  man  of  thirty-five.  They  appear  to  have  been  very 
happy.  She  is  well  preserved  and  in  good  health, 
though  she  is  now  over  eighty. 

Case  e 

1.  Male,  forty  years,  hair  brown,  eyes  hazel. 

2.  His  father  died  young,  after  a  six  weeks'  attack 
of  malaria.     His  mother  died  at  seventy. 


SEX  HISTORIES  171 

8.  Yes. 

4.  When  five  years  old.  (a)  At  twelve  had  sex  feel- 
ings toward  another  boy.  (b)  Spontaneous,  (c) 
Once  in  two  or  three  weelcs  before  puberty.  More  fre- 
quently after,  but  largely  repressed. 

5.  At  age  of  five,  without  any  outside  instruction,  he 
began  to  masturbate  by  holding  his  penis  between  his 
legs  and  moving  legs  back  and  forth.  Secretive,  but 
no  special  shame.  His  mother  gave  him  Stahl's  book 
for  young  men.  This  made  masturbation  very  offen- 
sive to  him  and  beneath  his  dignity.  Also,  his  mother 
told  him  not  to  touch  himself,  as  it  was  a  "  nasty  " 
thing  to  do.  Immediately,  he  began  trying  to  give  up 
the  practice,  and  would  go  sometimes  a  week,  sometimes 
two  or  three  weeks,  and  after  his  conversion  there  were 
at  least  two  periods  of  six  months  each  without  mastur- 
bation.    No  harm  came  from  the  practice. 

6.  Before  puberty,  he  had  sex  imagery  of  girls  when 
masturbating;  and  after  puberty,  like  imagery  of  girls. 
In  particular,  two  girls  who  were  known  to  be  having 
sexual  relations  with  other  boys,  were  always  in  his 
mind  when  masturbating.  Masturbation  was  both  a 
psychic  and  a  physical  act.     Never  had  daydreams. 

7.  Moral  aspects  of  the  case  troubled  him  most  and 
he  always  thought  masturbation  was  a  great  sin.  In 
early  years,  he  had  much  worry  with  regard  to  physical 
results,  but  this  was  gradually  lessened  while  he  was 
arriving  at  the  conclusion  that  there  could  be  no  great 
physical  injury  from  this,  since  he  always  felt  so  much 
better  after  masturbating,  in  spite  of  the  impressions 
made  on  him  by  the  warnings  in  Stahl's  book.  He  never 
saw  vaudeville  or  erotic  literature  as  a  boy  or  young 
man. 

8.  At  the  beginning  of  puberty,  emissions  were  two 


172  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

or  three  a  week.  He  was  much  worried  about  this,  as 
was  his  mother,  whom  he  told.  What  a  Young  Man 
Should  Know,  hy  Stahl,  reheved  him  on  this  point.  All 
through  high  school  he  was  going  with  a  girl.  He  held 
her  in  his  lap  and  hugged  and  kissed  her  daily.  She 
sought  rather  than  objected  to  this  sentimentality, 
though  she  never  gave  any  indications  of  any  thought 
or  desire  for  intercourse,  and  he  never  thought  of  such 
a  thing.  He  was  many  times  ashamed  of  himself  for 
having  erections  while  holding  her  and  kept  on  having 
emissions  about  three  times  a  week. 

12.  Boys  and  girls  both  should  be  talked  to  early 
about  the  sex  nature  and  told  not  to  worry  or  think 
about  it.     There  should  be  no  scare  teaching. 

NOTE 

Since  marriage,  he  was  away  from  his  wife  once  for 
a  period  of  eight  weeks.  During  this  time,  it  was  im- 
possible to  avoid  seeing  couples  "  spooning."  A  man 
of  his  acquaintance  was  going  regularly  to  prostitutes, 
and  insisted  on  telling  him  about  it.  In  addition  to 
this,  a  young  lady  who  slept  on  the  same  floor,  always 
left  her  door  open  at  night,  apparently  as  an  invita- 
tion. His  sex  desire  became  almost  unbearable.  His 
early  disgust  at  masturbation  made  it  more  than  ever 
repugnant  to  him,  now  that  he  was  married,  and  he 
resisted  the  impulse,  but  had  emissions  nearly  every 
night.  He  became  nervous,  lost  flesh,  and  after  return- 
ing home,  in  his  first  attempts  at  intercourse  with  his 
wife,  could  get  no  erection,  though  there  would  be  an 
emission.  He  had  had  a  slight  discharge  for  some 
time,  and  he  even  feared  that  he  had,  in  some  innocent 
way,  contracted  gonorrhoea,  for  he  never  had  inter- 
course with  any  woman  but  his  wife.     After  a  few  days, 


SEX  HISTORIES  ITS 

he  began  to  have  normal  erections,  the  discharge  ceased 
and  he  gradually  improved  in  health. 

NOTE    II 

Once  he  read  "  campliora  per  odores  vivos  castrat." 
He  used  to  smell  spirits  of  camphor  when  with  the  girl 
above  mentioned.  This  at  once  relieved  erections  and 
desire. 

Case  f 

1.  Female,  thirty  years,  eyes  and  hair  dark. 

2.  Yes. 
S.  Yes. 

4.  At  twelve,  a  girl  of  fourteen  told  her  that  women 
menstruated,  but  she  did  not  believe  it.  She  began 
going  with  a  boy  at  twelve,  but  had  no  sex  feelings  ex- 
cept on  rare  occasions  till  menstruation  at  fourteen, 
(b)    Suggested,      (c)   Rare  before,  frequent  after. 

5.  At  twelve  the  girl  above  taught  her  to  mastur- 
bate. This  was  done  but  few  times  before  her  first 
menstruation  two  years  later.  Feeling  of  shame  and 
secretiveness  thought  to  be  instinctive.  When  about 
sixteen  or  seventeen  read  books  telling  about  the  dan- 
gers of  masturbation,  and  began  to  try  to  abandon  the 
practice.  Would  stop  for  a  time,  and  then  begin  again. 
No  harm  has  resulted. 

6.  Thought  of  boys  or  of  some  suggestive  story  she 
had  heard,  when  indulging  in  auto-erotism. 

7.  Got  the  idea  from  books  she  read  that  the  prac- 
tice would  make  her  become  foolish,  but  she  did  not 
worry  excessively  for  long. 

8.  No  voluptuous  dreams. 

9.  No  sex  teaching. 

10.  No. 

11.  No. 


174  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

12.  Children  should  be  taught  early  and  never  fright- 
ened. 

NOTE 

Went  with  a  boy  all  through  high  school,  who  finally 
became  obnoxious  in  his  attentions,  and  she  ceased  to 
care  for  him.  Between  eighteen  and  twenty-one,  she 
went  with  two  other  young  men.  The  first  was  a  fine 
fellow,  but  the  second  made  improper  proposals  to  her, 
and  when  she  was  sitting  in  the  grove  he  would  lie  down 
and  rub  himself  against  her.  She  was  disgusted,  and 
tried  to  make  him  stop  this,  but  he  laughed  and  treated 
it  as  a  joke.  Later,  when  thinking  these  experiences 
over,  in  spite  of  her  disgust,  she  would  be  troubled  with 
erotic  desires. 

At  this  time,  her  future  husband  came  on  the  scene, 
and  there  was  at  once  a  different  feeling  toward  him. 
For  about  a  year,  beginning  when  she  was  sixteen,  she 
practiced  auto-erotism  about  once  a  day.  Then  this 
had  been  much  diminished,  but  it  increased  somewhat 
while  keeping  company  with  the  last  boy.  Now  it  de- 
creased again,  but  increased  after  she  and  her  future 
husband  were  engaged.  They  were  married  after  en- 
gagement of  three  months.  Her  shame  and  fear  of  all 
things  sexual  caused  her  to  conceal  all  sex  feelings  from 
her  husband,  but  she  had  an  imperfect  orgasm  about 
two  months  after  marriage,  and  after  this  a  similar 
occurrence  about  once  a  month.  This  continued  for 
about  ten  years,  during  which  time  she  skillfully  con- 
cealed her  feelings  from  him  though  she  often  lay  awake 
for  hours  after  becoming  excited  and  not  attaining  an 
orgasm.  She  was  ashamed  of  having  any  desire,  and 
blamed  her  husband  for  having  desire  and  asking  for 
intercourse,  which  he  did  less  and  less  frequently  as 


SEX  HISTORIES  175 

time  went  on.  The  fire  of  their  romantic  attachment 
had  really  become  ashes,  when  some  modern  sex  books 
and  accidental  explanations  showed  her  the  error  she 
had  been  laboring  under.  She  immediately  became 
properly  erotic  and  responsive  and  had  at  one  time 
sixteen  orgasms  during  a  period  of  sexual  enjoyment 
which  lasted  an  hour  and  a  half.  Two  days  later,  she 
experienced  six  orgasms  in  rapid  succession,  and  for 
a  period  of  some  weeks  after  becoming  convinced  of  the 
propriety  of  sex  relations,  she  herself  suggested  such 
relations  every  night,  if  her  husband  failed  to  do  so. 
A  most  remarkable  improvement  in  the  domestic  atmo- 
sphere took  place  immediately.  The  husband  for  a 
long  time  had  had  pains  in  the  back  and  lower  abdo- 
men, which  he  and  several  doctors  had  diagnosed  as 
rheumatism.  These  immediately  disappeared  and  he 
said  he  never  felt  so  well  in  his  life.  The  improvement 
in  health  and  spirits  was  most  striking  in  both  parties. 

Case  g 

1.  Male,  twenty-four  years,  eyes  brown,  hair  black. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  At  ten  years,  after  getting  information  from  boys, 
suggested  sex  relations  to  a  girl  of  seven,  who  showed 
him  her  privates  but  refused  anything  further,  (b) 
Spontaneous,  (c)  From  the  age  of  ten  to  thirteen 
masturbated  every  day  or  two.  At  thirteen  began  to 
have  emissions,  and  after  this  masturbated  every  day 
for  a  year  or  two,  and  some  days  three  or  four  times. 

5.  Yes,  as  above.  At  sixteen  or  seventeen,  fright- 
ened as  result  of  reading  Havelock  Ellis,  and  tried  to 
stop.     About   this   time,   a   physician   warned   him   to 


176  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

keep  from  intercourse  and  discouraged  masturbation, 
but  did  not  frighten  him  about  it.  Instinctively  secre- 
tive and  ashamed. 

6.  Mental  pictures  of  girls  when  masturbating.  Silk 
dresses  were  especially  exciting  to  him.  Daydreams 
with  sex  content  were  frequent. 

7.  Worried  after  reading  Ellis,  and  began  to  try 
to  give  up  masturbation  at  seventeen.  During  last 
year  in  high  school  he  reduced  the  number  of  times  to 
once  or  twice  a  week.  In  college,  he  usually  mastur- 
bated once  a  week,  on  Saturday  night.  Excited  by 
vaudeville  and  by  vulgar  literature  passed  around  by 
the  boys,  e.g.,  Only  a  Boy. 

8.  Masturbation  pretty  well  stopped  last  year  in 
college ;  afterwards  he  had  emissions  about  once  a  week. 
After  going  to  a  dance  or  after  anything  to  stimulate 
erotic  excitement,  he  would  have  persistent  erections 
and  desire  at  night,  but  no  emission.  On  the  follow- 
ing night,  he  would  have  dreams  and  emission  almost 
invariably.  Erotic  dreams  were  of  girls  whom  he  had 
seen,  but  who  were  not  among  his  acquaintances. 

9.  See  above. 

10.  No  nervous  troubles.     Always  absolutely  well. 

11.  12,  13.  When  he  was  in  high  school,  he  went 
with  a  girl  and  they  hugged  and  kissed  each  other,  but 
there  was  nothing  further.  When  he  went  away,  the 
friendship  lapsed.  Several  times,  after  dances,  when 
out  walking  with  girls  or  when  kissing  them,  he  had  an 
emission. 

Case  h 

1.  Female,  twenty-five  years  old,  hair  and  eyes  black. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 


SEX  HISTORIES  177 

4.  No  opportunity  to  get  complete  history.  The 
following  facts  only  are  known:  No  early  sex  instruc- 
tion. Moderate  auto-erotism  at  different  periods. 
When  about  fourteen,  in  the  school  which  she  attended, 
the  boys  and  girls  generally  had  sexual  relations ;  and 
she  did  the  same  as  the  rest,  having  had  no  warnings 
or  instruction.  After  a  year,  these  relations  were 
stopped  when  she  began  to  realize  that  they  were  wrong. 
After  this  she  was  in  a  state  of  constant  self-accusation 
and  shame  until  about  twenty.  She  then  met  a  young 
man  well  informed  in  sexual  matters,  but  a  fine  young 
man  and  strictly  moral.  They  fell  in  love  immediately. 
The  young  man's  mother  and  sister  gave  her  the  sex 
instruction  which  her  mother  should  have  given  her. 
When  he  asked  her  to  marry  him  she  refused  and  said 
she  was  not  worthy,  but  he  persisted  and  finally  got 
her  to  tell  him  of  her  experiences.  He  told  her  that, 
since  she  had  been  young  and  ignorant  when  she  had 
done  these  things,  she  was  not  at  all  to  blame,  and 
that  he  made  no  account  of  this  whatever.  He  said 
he  much  preferred  to  marry  a  girl  whom  he  knew  about 
and  who  had  been  honest  with  him.  She  finally  con- 
sented to  marry  him  and  is  one  of  the  happiest  young 
women  alive. 

author's  note 

This  young  man  and  his  three  sisters  had  frequently 
talked  over  sex  matters  with  their  father  and  mother. 
This  was  considered  both  natural  and  proper  in  this 
liberally  educated  and  moral  family.  I  have  recently 
discovered  another  just  such  family.  Since  I  have 
long  advocated  this  sort  of  thing  there  is  some  satis- 
faction in  observing  the  good  results  of  these  methods. 
Very    probably    a   tragedy   in   the   life   of   this   young 


178  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

woman  was  averted  by  her  falling  into  the  hands  of 
people  who  were  liberal,  sensible,  and  human. 

Case  i 

1.  Female,  thirty-five  years  old,  hair  and  eyes  black. 
%  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  First  menstruation  at  sixteen,  accompanied  by 
some  erotic  feehngs.  A  schoolgirl  friend  told  her  of 
menstruation  and  gave  her  other  sex  knowledge.  When 
she  asked  her  mother  about  these  things,  she  hushed  her 
up  and  so  shamed  her  that  she  never  has  overcome  the 
feeling  that  all  sex  matters  are  low  and  disgraceful. 
When  she  was  fifteen  she  began  to  go  with  the  man  who 
later  became  her  husband.  There  were  no  sex  imag- 
inings concerning  him  until  she  was  seventeen,  but  from 
that  time  until  her  marriage,  usually  when  she  was 
with  him,  she  had  erotic  feelings.  She  began  to  have 
voluptuous  dreams  with  orgasms  soon  after  her  first 
menstruation.  At  first  she  had  them  occasionally,  and 
usually  near  the  menstrual  period.  After  she  was  sev- 
enteen they  happened  almost  nightly  for  a  few  days 
before  menstruation.  They  also  were  usually  nightly 
and  at  times  several  times  in  a  night,  when  she  was 
associating  with  the  young  man.  She  thought  these  ex- 
periences very  wrong  and  worried  a  great  deal  about 
them.  If  she  were  having  these  experiences  about  three 
times  a  week  in  a  temperate  climate,  they  would  be  al- 
most immediately  doubled  on  going  South.  She  says 
that  husbands  and  wives  are  much  more  prone  to  mari- 
tal infidelities  in  warm  climates.  On  her  wedding  night, 
she  had  an  intense  orgasm  at  the  first  intercourse,  and 
though  their  relations  usually  have  been  four  or  five 
times  a  week,  she  has  almost  invariably  had  an  orgasm, 


SEX  HISTORIES  179 

and  after  her  husband's  absences  usually  has  had  a 
repetition.  Her  husband  seldom  has  been  away  from 
her  for  a  longer  period  than  two  weeks,  but  during 
these  short  absences  she  has  suffered  tortures  from 
erotic  feelings,  though  she  had  almost  nightly  relief 
in  sexual  dreams.  She  has  been  much  ashamed  of  her 
ardent,  though  perfecJily  normal,  sex  nature.  She  is 
a  very  active  woman  and  always  has  enjoyed  perfect 
health. 

Case  j 

1.  Male,  thirty-eight  years  old,  hair  black,  eyes 
brown. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  (a)  At  puberty,  (b)  Spontaneous,  (c)  None 
before  puberty,  infrequent  after,  with  gradual  increase. 

5.  Without  being  taught  by  any  one,  he  began  occa- 
sional masturbation  about  the  beginning  of  puberty  at 
thirteen.  Shame  and  secretiveness  were  instinctive. 
At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  began  to  try  to  give  up  the 
practice  of  masturbation  as  he  had  acquired  the  behef 
from  reading  and  from  talks  with  parents  and  other 
people  that  the  practice  was  injurious  to  health.  He 
then  began  to  have  emissions  which  were  at  first  infre- 
quent. As  masturbation  was  reduced,  the  emissions  in- 
creased. If  emissions  did  not  occur  regularly  he  mas- 
turbated. At  eighteen  he  began  to  have  fears  that 
emissions  were  harmful,  but  later  found  that  other  men 
were  having  the  same  experiences  and  an  athletic  di- 
rector explained  that  they  were  nomnal.  This  finally 
dispelled  his  fears,  in  a  measure ;  but  not  until  he  had 
begun  to  seek  occasional  promiscuous  intercourse,  think- 
ing this  safer  than  having  emissions  or  masturbating. 


.180  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

6.  He  had  many  air  castles  or  daydreams  in  which 
he  figured  as  the  hero  of  boys'  books  which  he  had  read. 
Later,  when  the  sex  instinct  became  stronger  and  he 
saw  married  people  happy  in  their  homes,  he  began  to 
imagine  a  home  of  his  own  and  the  woman  who  was  to 
be  his  wife.  This  was  a  girl  whom  he  had  known  from 
childhood,  and  whom  he  finally  married.  At  other 
times,  when  in  a  state  of  sex  excitement,  he  imagined 
sex  relations  with  various  girls  whom  he  casually  met 
who  were  of  voluptuous  nature  and  apparently  in  a 
state  of  erotic  excitement  similar  to  his  own.  At  first, 
he  had  images  of  such  girls  when  masturbating,  and 
later  they  urged  him  to  seek  promiscuous  relations  with 
girls  of  this  type.  His  moral  scruples  were  such  that 
he  never  was  able  to  seek  such  relations  without  first 
fortifying  himself  with  a  few  drinks  to  overcome  his 
repugnance.  He  very  seldom  went  with  prostitutes, 
but  usually  with  some  young  woman  who  was  suffering 
as  he  was.  He  was  frightened  by  quack  literature  and 
advertisements.  With  one  girl  in  particular,  he  had 
relations  about  twice  a  month  for  a  period  of  six 
months.  Both  were  suffering  extremely  for  relief  and 
were  entirely  faithful  to  each  other  during  this  period. 
It  was  entirely  a  sex  attraction  on  both  sides,  and 
neither  thought  of  marriage.  Then  and  now,  many 
years  later,  they  had  and  have  much  respect  for  each 
other.  He  was  always  particular  to  ascertain  beyond 
a  reasonable  doubt  that  the  woman  with  whom  he  had 
relations  had  previously  had  intercourse.  He  even  re- 
fused, on  one  occasion,  to  have  sex  relations  with  a 
young  woman  who  offered  herself,  because  he  knew  that 
she  was  a  virgin.  Every  woman  of  the  class  with  whom 
he  had  relations,  invariably  obtained  complete  satis- 
faction in  intercourse,  but  in  his  few  experiences  with 


SEX  HISTORIES  181 

regular  prostitutes,  no  one  of  them  appeared  to  have 
any  erethism  or  satisfaction. 

Before  his  marriage  there  was  a  period  of  increased 
sexual  desire  during  which  he  had  more  frequent  emis- 
sions but  no  promiscuous  relations.  His  wife  had  an 
orgasm  at  their  first  connection,  and  since  their  mar- 
riage has  had  complete  satisfaction  whenever  they  have 
had  intercourse,  which  has  averaged  four  or  five  times 
a  week.  After  an  absence  from  home,  his  wife  usually 
had  several  orgasms  at  the  first  intercourse.  They  have 
been  very  much  in  love,  very  happy  and  absolutely 
faithful  to  each  other. 

NOTE 

He  was  told  by  an  athletic  trainer  that  almost  in- 
variably, when  men  were  in  training,  there  would  be  a 
large  increase  in  the  number  of  emissions,  two  or  three 
times  as  many  as  under  ordinary  conditions.  In  the 
two  or  three  days  of  light  training  preceding  a  big 
game,  there  were  likely  to  be  two  or  three  emissions. 
After  a  hard  game,  there  would  be  none  for  several 
days.  The  above  accurately  describes  his  case  when 
in  training.  A  friend  had  an  emission  on  his  way  to 
class,  and  spoke  of  this  as  the  result  of  training  and 
as  something  to  be  expected. 

NOTE    11 

A  young  man  who  had  been  carefully  reared  and 
kept  from  all  bad  companions  and  from  all  sex  expe- 
rience and  knowledge,  went  to  college.  In  order  to 
have  him  away  from  all  evil  influences,  his  people  ar- 
ranged with  the  college  authorities  to  have  him  board 
and  room  with  a  woman  of  fifty  and  her  niece,  both  of 
whom  were  of  excellent  repute.     Three  days  after  his 


18a  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

arrival,  the  elder  woman  initiated  him  into  sexual  in- 
tercourse, and  soon  after  the  younger  one  offered  her- 
self. For  the  next  two  years,  he  had  frequent  rela- 
tions with  both,  often  going  from  the  room  of  one 
directly  to  that  of  the  other.  He  then  disappeared  in 
a  large  city  and  devoted  himself  to  prostitutes  and  ac- 
quired venereal  disease.  He  was  finally  found.  He 
said  that  his  life  had  been  wrecked  and  that  he  never 
should  marry  the  young  woman  to  whom  he  had  been 
engaged.     He  died  a  year  or  two  later. 

Case  k 

1.  Female,  thirty  years  old,  hair  brown,  eyes  blue. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4.  First  menstruation  at  thirteen.  She  was  alarmed 
about  this,  as  her  mother  never  had  told  her  anything 
about  it.  Her  first  conscious  sex  feelings  occurred 
spontaneously  at  this  time.  They  were  infrequent  and 
not  particularly  annoying. 

5.  There  was  no  masturbation.  Sex  feelings  grad- 
ually grew  stronger  and  more  frequent  from  thirteen 
to  fifteen,  when  a  man,  much  older,  began  to  pay  her 
attentions,  and  when  she  was  sixteen,  they  were  mar- 
ried. The  hymen  was  very  resistent,  and  the  first  in- 
tercourse caused  great  pain  and  considerable  hemor- 
rhage. It  was  two  months  before  she  began  to  have 
any  pleasure  in  intercourse.  She  was  ignorant  and 
very  much  afraid,  though  her  husband  endeavored  to 
prepare  her  for  intercourse  by  means  of  the  ordinary 
stimulations.  Her  breasts  were  sensitive,  but  she  never 
has  had  the  slightest  pleasurable  sensation  in  the  clit- 
oris. The  mere  touching  of  this  organ,  which  is  appar- 
ently normal,  makes  her  irritable,  nervous,  and  angry, 


SEX  HISTORIES  183 

and  often  causes  pain.  She  soon  came  to  have  an 
orgasm  about  once  in  a  week  or  ten  days.  They  had 
intercourse  about  twice  a  week.  Her  husband  became 
abusive,  overworked  her,  and  went  to  drinking.  After 
a  few  years  she  procured  a  divorce. 

She  soon  married  a  man  fifteen  years  older  than  her- 
self, whose  wife  had  died.  They  have  had  intercourse 
always  five  to  seven  times  a  week,  which  is  always  agree- 
able to  her,  and  she  usually,  though  not  invariably,  has 
an  orgasm.  A  uterine  displacement  caused  her  some 
trouble,  but  its  repair  left  her  in  perfect  health.  She 
has  had  no  children,  though  she  has  taken  no  measures 
to  prevent  them.  Her  husband,  who  is  nearly  fifty 
years  of  age,  is  a  man  of  unusual  virility,  and  although 
he  has  intercourse  almost  every  night,  he  invariably 
desires  and  obtains,  at  every  intercourse,  two  or  more 
orgasms  without  the  slightest  intermission.  This  pro- 
longation and  repetition  on  his  part  is  most  agreeable 
to  her,  and  is  the  reason  for  her  usually  attaining  an 
orgasm. 

Case  I 

1.  Female,  twenty-three  years  old,  hair  brown,  eyes 
gray. 

2.  Yes. 

3.  Yes. 

4f.  At  the  age  of  eight,  a  maid  told  her  of  experi- 
ences with  her  lovers  and  tried  to  masturbate  her.  She 
had  some  local  sex  feelings  at  this  time.  The  experi- 
ence was  not  repeated,  as  the  maid  was  soon  discharged. 
There  were  no  further  sex  feelings  before  puberty. 
The  first  menstruation  occurred  at  thirteen,  but  there 
were  no  further  sex  feelings  until  she  was  sixteen. 

5.  No  masturbation  as  a  child.     At  sixteen  a  young 


184  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

man  with  whom  she  was  acquainted  kissed  her,  and  this 
aroused  erotic  feehngs,  the  first  since  the  experience 
with  the  maid.  From  that  time  on,  following  menstrua- 
tion, there  would  be  local  irritation.  Attempting  to 
relieve  this,  produced  the  same  feelings  which  the  maid 
had  produced,  and  from  this  time  on,  she  began  to  mas- 
turbate once  each  month  following  menstruation,  then 
there  would  be  no  erotic  feelings  until  the  next  men- 
strual period.  She  had  many  men  friends,  and  en- 
joyed skating,  dancing,  etc.,  and  allowed  such  familiari- 
ties as  kissing,  but  any  further  attempts  at  familiarity 
were  disgusting,  and  she  immediately  discontinued  the 
acquaintance  of  any  one  who  made  any  improper  ad- 
vances. Risque  stories  or  jokes  disgusted  her,  vaude- 
ville had  no  effect ;  but  late  years,  medical  literature 
concerning  sex  produced  erotic  feelings.  Masturba- 
tion has  had  no  effect.  She  sometimes  thought  that 
masturbation  ought  not  to  be  given  way  to,  and  at 
others,  that  it  was  an  instinctive  and  natural  mani- 
festation. Erotic  feelings  were  so  strong  after  men- 
struation that  she  had  little  confidence  in  herself.  Al- 
ways, from  a  young  girl,  she  had  had  a  firm  determi- 
nation never  to  have  intercourse  until  marriage,  so  that 
she  could  tell  her  husband  truly  that  she  never  had 
had  sex  relations  with  any  one.  She  found  that  the 
single  act  of  masturbation  after  each  menstruation, 
completely  freed  her  from  this  tremendous  desire,  and 
she  felt  perfectly  safe  and  her  own  mistress  until  the 
next  monthly  period. 

6.  Masturbation  was  both  a  psychic  and  physical 
act.  She  imagined  the  heroes  and  heroines  in  stories, 
or  people  she  read  about  in  papers  in  voluptuous  situa- 
tions, but  never  in  actual  intercourse.  She  herself  was 
never  a  participant.     The  Thaw  case  first  came  before 


SEX  HISTORIES  185 

the  public  when  she  was  a  young  girl,  and  its  charac- 
ters frequently  figured  in  her  imaginings.  She  had 
daydreams  often  without  any  sex  element. 

7.  She  had  no  serious  worry. 

8.  She  has  voluptuous  dreams  at  long  intervals.  Be- 
fore her  marriage,  the  intervals  were  longer  and  the 
dreams  invariably  ended  in  orgasm.  Since  her  mar- 
riage, such  dreams  are  more  frequent,  but  they  are 
never  complete  before  she  wakes.  A  short  time  after 
waking,  the  excitement  disappears  and  she  goes  to  sleep 
again ;  but  the  next  day  the  dream  will  keep  recurring 
to  her,  attended  by  strong  erotic  feelings  which  grow 
stronger  on  each  recurrence.  Since  her  marriage,  ero- 
tic feelings  after  menstruation  are  stronger  and  more 
persistent  than  ever  before. 

9.  Her  mother  told  her  about  menstruation  and 
warned  her  against  familiarities  from  men,  but  told 
her  she  trusted  her  —  putting  her  on  her  honor,  so  to 
speak,  at  the  same  time  her  full  freedom  was  allowed. 

12.  She  believes  in  full  instruction  and  freedom  for 
young  people,  and  truthful  answers  to  their  questions 
according  to  the  age  of  the  child. 

KOTE 

The  case  of  a  girl  who  was  in  school  with  her  im- 
pressed her  deeply.  This  girl  of  twelve  masturbated 
openly  and  shamelessly.  The  teachers  frightened  her 
about  this,  telling  her  she  would  die  if  she  continued 
the  practice  "  of  playing  with  herself."  She  stopped 
this  at  once  and  immediately  began  having  sex  rela- 
tions with  boys  in  the  school.  When  she  was  sixteen 
she  was  a  common  prostitute,  at  seventeen  she  had 
sj'philis,  at  eighteen  she  was  pronounced  incurable  and 
died  soon  after. 


186  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 


NOTE   n 


She  also  was  well  acquainted  with  a  girl  who  mas- 
turbated and  who  feared  this  would  cause  pregnancy. 
When  she  was  reassured  to  the  contrary,  she  ceased  to 
worry  and  continued  the  practice,  using  a  candle,  and 
similar  articles.  This  girl  was  ruddy  and  healthy,  and 
of  a  most  happy  disposition.  She  kept  free  from  sex- 
ual entanglements  and  at  last  accounts  was  engaged  to 
a  most  estimable  young  man. 

NOTE   m 

The  narrator  of  this  history,  on  her  wedding  night, 
experienced  no  pleasure  but  considerable  pain  and  a 
choking  sensation  followed  by  a  hysterical  condition 
at  the  first  intercourse.  At  the  next,  some  five  hours 
later,  she  experienced  a  complete  orgasm,  after  which 
she  was  also  hysterical  for  a  short  time.  During  the 
next  few  weeks,  sometimes  there  was  complete  orgasm 
and  sometimes  not.  After  two  months,  she  had  an  or- 
gasm invariably  and  synchronously  with  her  husband. 
They  were  separated  often  during  their  early  mar- 
ried life,  but  when  together  had  intercourse  several 
times  each  night. 


CHAPTER  IX 
BIRTH  CONTROL 

In  the  conflict  between  the  individual  and  society  is 
to  be  sought  the  remedy  for  most  human  ills.  All  in- 
dividuals have  certain  inalienable  rights  and  all  com- 
munities have  a  certain  authority  over  the  individuals 
of  which  they  are  composed.  It  is  self-evident  that  a 
monarchy  or  a  democracy  that  stifles  all  initiative,  or 
undermines  the  health  of  its  constituents,  must  ulti- 
mately fail.  Absolute  freedom  of  the  individual  in- 
vites a  like  result.  Our  political,  labor,  and  social 
questions  spring  from  diff'erences  of  opinion  as  to  in- 
dividual and  community  rights.  For  their  own  pur- 
poses, selfish  autocrats  ever  have  disregarded  the  right 
or  well-being  of  the  individual.  Prussian  militarism  il- 
lustrates this  to-day  as  it  does  an  exaltation  of  com- 
munity or  national  rights  above  those  of  the  individual. 
This  is  not  an  isolated  instance,  for  we  see  in  demo- 
cratic America  with  all  its  individuality  and  non-cen- 
tralization, relics  of  ancient  and  old-world  methods  of 
suppressing  the  individual.  Realizing  that  the  indi- 
vidual is  the  substructure  of  society  and  that  upon 
him  ultimately  depends  all  public  good,  we  of  necessity 
consider  him  first  in  any  logical  discussion  of  all  social 
questions. 

This  present  birth  control  discussion,  in  some  form 
or  other,  has  been  present  many  centuries.  It  comes, 
then,  in  the  last  analysis  away  from  any  abstract  con- 

187 


188  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS  ^ 

siderations  of  public  weal  or  woe.  It  is  little  related 
to  war,  famine,  pestilence,  and  social  status,  and  be- 
comes a  concrete  investigation  of  the  individual  and 
his  individual  family.  It  is  difficult  to  pass  laws  that 
will  fit  all  conditions,  particularly  when  laws  often  hold 
over  from  ante-diluvian  or  immediately  post-diluvian 
states  of  society  to  higher  civilizations.  There  is 
something  to  be  said  on  both  sides. 

"  Grow  and  multiply  in  the  land  which  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee  "  was  good  advice  for  the  children 
of  Israel  about  to  colonize  a  new  country.  In  China, 
where  in  a  few  years  nine  millions  died,  from  famine  and 
disease  incident  to  it,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing 
that  the  same  authority  even  would  have  given  the 
same  advice.  Analogously,  it  would  be  equally  fool- 
ish to  insist  that  the  rules  which  would  apply  to  our 
hardy  colonial  ancestors,  when  the  population  was 
sparse,  necessities  were  few  and  inexpensive,  and  the 
men  and  women  robust  inhabitants  of  God's  great  out- 
of-doors,  could  be  legitimately  applied  to  their  semi- 
eff'eminate  urban  descendants,  inoculated  with  the  cost 
of  high  living  and  actually  faced  by  the  high  cost  of 
living.  No  intelligent  person,  not  even  a  certain  erudite 
attorney  would  question  the  humanity  to  the  individ- 
ual or  the  safeguard  to  society  of  contraceptive  knowl- 
edge to  a  middle-aged  married  woman  known  to  be  fer- 
tile, who  was  tubercular,  tabetic,  or  diabetic.  No 
physician  or  high  school  graduate  would  consider  that 
contraceptive  methods  were  improper  by  or  for  a  hus- 
band or  wife  whose  recovery  from  a  severe  neurosis  or 
a  psychosis  depended  in  considerable  measure  on  the 
usual  conjugal  relations.  If  morons  marry,  as  they 
often  do,  few  would  decry  contraceptive  methods  as 
improper  for  them  at  least  until  our  public  sentiment 


BIRTH  CONTROL  189 

is  strong  enough  to  allow  sterilization  of  the  unfit. 
Who  among  us  is  so  inhuman,  ignorant,  or  hide-bound 
as  to  object  to  contraceptive  information  or  contracep- 
tive measures  for  the  working  man's  wife  with  already 
eight  or  ten  improperly  nourished  children  and  she  her- 
self sickly  and  overburdened  and  almost  certain  to  die 
at  her  next  confinement. 

More  than  twenty  years  ago,  I  attended  a  woman  at 
her  seventh  confinement.  She  was  very  frail,  the  chil- 
dren had  come  in  rapid  succession ;  she  had  a  severe 
post-partum  hemorrhage  and  I  despaired  of  her  life, 
but  she  recovered,  raised  all  her  children,  and  is  her- 
self hale  and  hearty  today.  I  told  the  husband  she 
must  have  no  children  for  several  years  if  ever.  After 
a  time,  my  conscience  compelled  me  to  tell  them  more. 
I  was  relieved  to  find  that  though  they  had  been  rig- 
ildy  continent,  in  their  relations,  he  had  not  yet  suc- 
cumbed to  outside  influences  and,  though  both  were  in 
a  border-line  state,  neither  had  then  developed  the 
serious  nervous  trouble  to  be  looked  for  sooner  or  later 
under  any  such  regime. 

A  modicum  of  common  sense  intelligently  used,  will 
make  it  clear  to  any  one  that  there  is  hardly  a  family 
in  existence  whose  contracting  parties  are  both  virile 
and  lovers,  the  two  most  essential  qualities  to  any  mar- 
riage, where  some  form  of  prevention  of  conception  is 
not  practised  for  a  longer  or  shorter  period.  If  this 
is  a  sin  and  the  one  without  sin  was  to  throw  the  first 
stone,  there  would  be  no  martyred  Stephens,  unless  the 
unfertile  and  impotent  married  and  the  ignorant  un- 
married took  a  hand  in  the  stone  throwing. 

Personally,  I  have  been  married  twent^'-seven  years. 
In  our  first  four  married  years,  we  had  four  children 
which  we  both  desired,  I  especially.     In  the  remaining 


190  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

twenty-three  years,  we  have  had  three  more  which  we 
both  desired,  but  she  especially.  I  may  say  that  both 
of  us  have  wished  and  now  wish  for  more,  but  certain 
reasons  not  wholly  mercenary  forbid  us  further  par- 
ticipation in  the  greatest  of  life's  responsibilities  and 
joys.  Had  nature  taken  her  uninterrupted  course,  one 
of  two  things  certainly  would  have  happened.  Either 
she  would  now  be  a  broken  woman,  I  a  dependent  and 
our  progeny  of  twenty  or  more  in  various  stages  of 
their  own  upbringing ;  or  I  should  have  a  family  of  from 
ten  to  fifteen  children,  and  a  slab  in  the  cemetery  bear- 
ing an  inscription  to  the  best  woman  who  was  ever  on 
earth.  The  facts  are  that  we  are  both  alive  and  well, 
hope  we  are  useful,  and  have  six  robust  children.  I 
am  not  as  much  ashamed  of  this  record  as  I  should 
probably  be  if  I  did  not  know  of  thousands  of  women 
and  men  whom  I  thoroughly  respect  where  similar  con- 
ditions entailed  like  consequences. 

Some  one  says  "  bad  taste  " — "  unrefined  " — "  all 
facts  of  the  origin  of  life,  all  intimate  family  matters 
should  not  be  mentioned  or  if  so,  referred  to  in  diluted 
figures  of  speech."  Perhaps  so,  but  I  hardly  think  so, 
when  the  silence  which  should  be  golden  is  punctuated 
with  infanticide,  abortion,  puny  children,  suffering 
women,  and  crowded  graveyards.  Sometimes,  I  be- 
come aweary  at  the  educated  naivete,  the  prudish  reti- 
cence, the  unconscious  ignorance  of  so-called  educated 
people  who  know  or  ought  to  know  what  everybody  else 
does.  Forel  advocates  that  young  people  wishing  to 
marry  and  not  in  financial  circumstances  to  do  so,  on 
account  of  the  expectation  of  children,  should  be  in- 
structed in  preventive  measures  to  be  used  for  a  short 
period.  This  doctrine  as  an  encouragement  to  mar- 
riage, as  a  prevention  of  immorality  and  venereal  dis- 


BIRTH  CONTROL  191 

ease,  and  as  a  preserver  of  health,  has  many  argume^nts 
in  its  favor ;  but  I  do  not  insist  upon  it. 

Let  us  now  speak  of  the  other  side.  No  one  will 
deny  that  birth  control  literature  scattered  indiscrimi- 
nately might  do  harm  in  some  cases.  A  man  or  woman 
entering  matrimony  for  mone}^,  position,  or  lust,  and 
not  wishing  children  ought  to  have  no  ready  means  of 
avoiding  them ;  for  such  an  imminent  danger  to  their 
selfish  purposes  might  prevent  such  a  union,  unhallowed 
for  tTie  individual  and  unprofitable  for  the  state.  That 
the  family  of  any  such  couple  would  be  of  much  use  to 
society  is  questionable,  and  society  has  little  concern 
for  what  becomes  of  such  supremely  selfish  individuals. 
There  ought  to  be  some  way  to  compel  parents  with  one 
child,  or  married  people  without  any,  to  have  a  mod- 
erate family,  if  possible ;  but  these  people  already  know 
all  there  is  to  be  known  in  the  way  of  prevention.  I 
incline  to  think  that  a  law  against  contraceptive  infor- 
mation does  nothing  to  make  the  selfish  and  self-cen- 
tered do  their  manifest  duties ;  but  punishes  the  pure, 
the  modest,  the  frail,  and  the  unselfish.  If  by  repres- 
sion of  natural  instincts  or  by  ignorant  methods  of 
prevention,  we  continue  to  make  a  class  of  neurotic 
men  and  women  such  as  we  now  have,  in  just  such  a 
degree,  it  does  not  argue  well  for  the  future  of  the 
state.  Neither  does  it  argue  well,  if  from  the  over- 
strain incident  to  too  numerous  maternal  cares  or  too 
frequent  childbearing,  we  kill  off  all  our  best  mothers 
and  leave  a  numerous  progeny  to  bring  itself  up.  Most 
fertile  and  unselfish  people  need  at  one  time  or  another 
advice  as  to  birth  control.  It  is  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence to  the  impotent  or  infertile,  and  the  extremely 
selfish  ought  not  to  have  it;  but  all  of  the  latter  class 
now  have  it.     Sooner  or  later,  some  of  those  who  need 


19a  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

it,  get  it.  The  ones  in  reality  most  affected  are  the 
poorest  and  least  intelligent  who  keep  on  having  numer- 
ous offspring,  though  they  are  the  least  fitted  of  any 
class  to  rear  them. 

The  fact  that  a  law  against  contraceptive  informa- 
tion exists,  has  comparatively  little  significance  when 
we  recognize  the  undoubted  fact  that  most  of  the  people 
of  highest  ethical  conceptions  and  economic  worth: 
clergymen,  physicians,  and  lawyers,  as  well  as  men  and 
women  of  all  professions  and  callings,  disregard  it  at 
will.  It  merely  shows  that  at  some  former  time  the 
religio-ethical  or  judicial  conscience  was  at  variance 
perhaps  with  what  was  then  —  certainly  with  what  is 
now  —  the  public  or  social  conscience.  The  law 
against  contraception  is  more  obsolete  today  than  the 
old  blue  laws.  It  would  then  have  been  a  crime  to 
drive  a  horse  or  an  automobile  on  Sunday.  It  is  as 
obsolete  as  the  canonical  law  which  punished  by  a  fine 
feticide  or  abortion  before  the  eightieth  day  after  im- 
pregnation and  by  death  the  same  crime  after  that  date. 
Perhaps  some  law  ought  to  exist,  but  certainly  not  one 
which  is  in  direct  contravention  to  the  belief  and  prac- 
tice of  the  large  mass  of  the  moral,  useful,  thinking 
men  and  women  in  the  community. 

In  The  American  Journal  of  Urology  and  Sexology 
for  August,  1916,  there  is  an  article  by  Dr.  B.  S. 
Talmy  concerning  the  limitation  of  offspring  by  abor- 
tion or  prevention  of  conception,  which  if  startling  still 
furnishes  much  food  for  thought.  While  we  may  not 
follow  the  author  in  all  his  deductions  and  will  not  at- 
tempt here  to  enter  upon  any  elaborate  review  or  criti- 
cism, it  may  be  well  to  consider  some  of  the  truths 
which  he  utters.  I  will  quote  partly  his  ideas  and 
partly  his  exact  language.     He  shows  that  in  earlier 


BIRTH  CONTROL  193 

times  the  cliild  was  under  the  absolute  control  of  the 
parents  both  before  and  after  birth.  Except  to  the 
Jews,  the  child's  life  had  little  value  and  if  undesirable, 
it  was  disposed  of  at  the  will  of  the  parents.  The 
church  doctrine  that  the  soul  entered  the  body  at  a 
definite  time  after  the  beginning  of  gestation  led  to 
severe  penalties  for  the  prevention  of  conception  or  for 
tampering  in  any  way  with  the  contents  of  the  uterus. 
The  right  of  the  foetus  to  life  was  based  entirely  on  this 
Christian  doctrine. 

Later,  he  says,  "  There  arose  a  certain  rebellion 
against  the  sanctity  of  potential  man."  The  love  of 
luxury  and  the  gospel  of  comfort  among  the  rich,  a 
higher  sense  of  responsibility  to  offspring  among  the 
middle  classes,  have  decreased  the  will  to  procreate. 
Socialism  among  the  laboring  classes  has  brought  en- 
lightenment, and  they  have  learned  that  a  liberal  sup- 
ply of  children  is  not  only  a  great  drain  upon  their 
small  income  but  increases  competition  by  increasing 
numbers.  Therefore,  restriction  of  offspring  benefits 
not  only  the  parent,  but  the  child  himself.  Lower 
average  birth  rate  means  more  vigorous  mothers,  and 
smaller  families  mean  more  vigorous  children.  Fem- 
inism, or  woman's  aspiration  for  a  career,  also  leads 
her  to  refrain  from  too  many  children.  Childbearing 
is  evaded  for  social,  economic,  and  luxurious  reasons. 
Such  is  the  gist  of  a  portion  of  his  article. 

I  think  it  must  be  recognized  that  there  is  abundant 
justification  for  birth  control  in  some  cases  and  for 
some  of  these  reasons,  and  that  there  is  no  justification 
whatever  in  others,  therefore,  the  present  law  or  no 
law  at  all  is  equally  unjust.  It  seems  to  me  that  this 
matter  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  an  unprejudiced 
scientific,   humanitarian,    economic    commission    of   the 


194  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

highest  order  as  should  be  euthanasia,  sterilization  of 
the  unfit,  control  of  marriage,  if  they  are  to  be  regu- 
lated by  the  state.  Certainly  some  just  regulation  in 
these  matters  is  advisable. 

Again  quoting  Talmy's  ideas  and  some  of  his  words, 
birth  control  is  accomplished  by  contraception  or  feti- 
cide. 

Unmarried  victims  surprised  in  extra-matrimonial  gesta- 
tion resort  to  the  latter,  as  do  also  many  married  women. 
In  the  conscience  of  the  people,  there  is  no  difference  be- 
tween the  desire  to  have  no  children  and  abortion. 

The  moral  aspect  of  feticide  is  entirely  overlooked. 
In  Manhattan  and  Bronx,  there  are  eighty  thousand 
abortions  every  year  and  the  number  is  increasing. 
In  1881,  a  special  commission  of  the  Michigan  board 
of  health  reported  that  in  the  United  States  there  were 
at  least  one  hundred  thousand  voluntary  abortions 
annually, —  one-third  of  all  pregnancies ;  and  six  thou- 
sand women  died  from  the  results.  In  Lyons,  France, 
there  were  annually  nineteen  thousand  abortions  to 
eight  thousand  births  in  a  city  of  four  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  inhabitant*.  Interruption  of  pregnancy 
is  against  the  laws  of  most  civilized  countries.  The 
state  claims  to  have  vital  interest  in  the  increase  of 
population.  Europe  is  an  armed  camp ;  and  the  larger 
the  population,  the  greater  the  number  of  soldiers. 
But  while  the  state  forbids  interference,  most  individ- 
uals —  even  the  legislators  themselves  —  constantly 
break  these  laws.  The  religious  principle  is  the  basis 
of  the  law  against  abortion  and  fear  of  race  suicide  is 
the  basis  of  laws  against  the  products  of  conception. 
Results  show  that  decrease  of  birth  rate  cannot  be  in- 
fluenced by  law,  and  penal  codes  ought  to  be  in  har- 
mony with  social  currents. 


BIRTH  CONTROL  195 

A  practice  widespread  in  all  classes  in  spite  of  legal, 
religious,  ethical,  and  moral  effects  must  be  in  harmony 
with  the  social  conscience  of  the  people.  In  ten  years  in 
New  York  City  only  three  abortionists  were  convicted. 
Jurors  will  not  convict.  It  is  futile  for  legislators  with  one 
or  two  children  to  pass  stringent  laws  against  the  limitation 
of  offspring. 

Talmy  argues  that  legalizing  abortion  would  save 
many  mothers  and  children  who  now  die  from  clandes- 
tine abortions  by  ignorant  persons  who  cannot  consult 
reputable  physicians  and  who  cannot  or  will  not  afford 
the  proper  care.  Celibacy  is,  he  says,  a  negligible  fac- 
tor in  birth  control.  Castration  is  not  only  illegal, 
but  not  to  be  thought  of  as  an  ordinary  remedy.  He 
states  that  onanism  or  withdrawal  is  injurious  to  both 
parties,  as  are  also  the  other  mechanical  and  chemical 
means  of  preventing  conception.  All  means,  he  says, 
spoil  the  libido  and  disturb  the  finer  sensibilities  of 
the  couple.  (Which  of  course  is  not  necessarily  true 
when  justification,  intelligence,  and  adequate  knowledge 
are  united  in  accomplishing  the  desirable  end.)  Again 
he  says  that  "  the  need  of  preparation  renders  me- 
chanical or  chemical  contrivances  inapplicable  just  in 
such  cases  where  they  are  most  needed,  where  a  con- 
ception is  nothing  short  of  tragedy,  namely  in  the  un- 
married victim." 

If  laws  against  contraception  were  repealed  it  would 
be  of  little  practical  value.  He  argues  that  while  advo- 
cates of  contraception  say  this  would  avoid  destruc- 
tion of  life  by  abortion,  still  potential  life  is  also  in 
the  egg  and  spermatozoan  and  it  amounts  to  the  same 
thing  and  if  morally  right  to  destroy  them  separately, 
it  would  be  equally  so  after  union.  Many  claim  it  as 
a  fundamental  individual  right  of  women  to  bear,  or  not 


196  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

to  bear  children.  The  call  of  nature  should  not  be  out 
of  harmony  with  the  penal  code,  and  he  bases  his  claim 
for  legal  abortion,  as  do  other  Neo-Malthusians,  largely 
on  this  legalization  of  feticide. 

Legalization  of  feticide  thus  may  save  life  and  never 
will  do  any  harm.  The  number  of  abortions  cannot 
increase  to  any  great  extent,  even  after  legalization. 
The  number  of  women  in  the  large  centers  of  popula- 
tion, who  do  not  undergo  a  couple  of  abortions  during 
their  sex-life  is  very  small  indeed.  There  is  no  use 
acting  the  ostrich  and  refusing  to  see  things  as  they 
really  are.  The  declining  birth-rate  is  a  phenomenon 
in  all  civilized  countries.  The  limitation  of  offspring 
has  become  a  national  institution  not  only  in  France, 
but  in  all  highly  civilized  countries.  The  more  progres- 
sive a  country  is,  the  further  has  the  limitation  pro- 
gressed. The  diminished  fecundity  among  the  modem 
progressive  nations  is  not  biological,  but  volitional. 
When  we  hear  that  among  college-bred  women,  in  our 
country,  the  birth-rate  has  fallen  below  the  necessary 
average,  the  reason  of  this  phenomenon  is  not  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  binomial  theorem  has  any  effect  upon 
the  ovaries,  but  that  college-bred  parents  refuse  to 
have  a  large  progeny.  Even  the  poor  ignorant  immi- 
grants, in  our  country,  decline  to  breed  like  rabbits. 
The  same  Irish  or  Jewish  women  who  in  their  native 
countries,  true  to  the  tenets  of  their  churches,  were 
proud  of  their  vast  offspring,  wiU  try  limitation  as 
soon  as  they  become  somewhat  Americanized.  We  may, 
therefore,  expect  that  with  the  spread  of  instruction 
and  general  education,  limitation  of  offspring  will  reach 
the  poorest  sections  of  our  population.  Since  contra- 
ception is  not  always  effective  —  half-a-dozen  accidents 
v/ill  surely  happen  in  the  life  of  every  woman,  no  matter 


BIRTH  CONTROL  197 

what  contraceptive  she  uses  —  the  women  who  wish 
to  avoid  maternity  will  take  their  refuge  in  the  artificial 
emptying  of  the  uterus.  Abortion  will  continue  to  in- 
crease and  to  exact  an  appalling  toll  from  the  lives  of 
our  women. 

I  have  quoted  thus  fully  from  Dr.  Talmy,  because 
the  woeful  results  of  present  conditions  and  the  argu- 
ments for  legalized  abortion  are  much  the  same  as  the 
corresponding  ones  for  contraceptive  measures.  I 
have  entertained  my  views  for  many  years,  and  I  wrote 
the  first  half  of  this  article  before  having  seen  his. 
While  I  never  entertained  the  view  that  contraceptive 
information  should  be  disbursed  indiscriminately,  I  have 
long  believed  in  the  discriminate  dissemination  of  it. 
Legalized  abortion  also  probably  would  be  going  too 
far,  but  I  agree  that  some  remedy  must  be  found  for 
sparing  the  lives  of  many  unfortunate,  though  maj'be 
only  ignorant,  or  perhaps  entirely  innocent,  women  who 
fall  into  the  clutches  of  the  greedy,  ignorant,  and  vi- 
cious professional  abortionists.  It  seems  as  if  regu- 
lation by  a  wise  commission  would  be  the  sanest  method 
in  this  instance,  as  in  the  others  I  have  mentioned. 

All  this  discussion  shows  the  necessity  for  thinking 
men  and  women  getting  together,  and  after  they  have 
laid  aside  prudery  and  prejudice,  ancient  dogma  and 
modern  notions  that  are  exclusively  material  and 
utilitarian,'  then,  without  animus  and  with  calmest 
judgment  and  clearest  insight,  they  can  strive  to  ar- 
rive at  what  is  honest,  ethical,  and  humane, —  having 
in  view  that  pragmatic  or  middle  course  which  seems 
to  be  the  best  road  for  our  children  and  children's  chil- 
dren to  travel  in  the  long  search  for  humanity's  El 
Dorado  which  is  happiness,  usefulness,  purity,  and 
brotherly  love. 


CHAPTER  X 

MISTAKES  OF  A  PHYSICIAN 

Elsewhere,  I  have  quoted  extensively  from  the  ex- 
cellent pamphlet  on  sex  instruction,  entitled,  A  Letter 
from  a  Physician  to  his  Son  in  College,  by  the  late  Dr. 
Woodruff.  I  am  pretty  well  acquainted  with  another 
phj'sician  who  has  instructed  several  sons  before,  dur- 
ing, and  after,  their  college  days.  He  made  some  mis- 
takes before  adopting  whole-heartedly  the  policy  which 
has  kept  him  measurably  free  from  such  mistakes  in 
later  years.  At  the  time  his  son  of  seventeen  started 
for  college,  he  was  still  sufficiently  influenced  by  tra- 
dition to  hesitate  about  speaking  of  auto-erotism  for 
fear  that,  by  his  explanations,  he  might  lead  the  lad 
to  the  discovery  of  this  practice,  assuming,  as  many 
parents  do,  that,  presumably,  up  to  that  time,  he  knew 
nothing  about  it.  The  son  was  told  that  sexual  rela- 
tions with  any  woman  before  marriage  would  at  once 
cause  greater  sorrow  to  his  parents  and  later  greater 
regret  on  his  own  account  than  any  course  he  could 
pursue.  He  was  also  shown  that  such  a  course  would 
be  hostile  to  the  progress  of  society.  The  sex  prob- 
lem was  acknowledged  to  be  a  difficult  one,  and  in  the 
event  of  its  becoming  a  too  difficult  one  for  him  to 
solve  alone,  he  was  told  to  apply  to  the  physician  for 
further  advice  and  relief.  An  effort  was  made  to 
shape  his  future  by  counselling  him  to  idealize  woman, 

to  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  perfect  health, 

198 


MISTAKES  OF  A  PHYSICIAN  199 

and  when  the  time  came,  to  seek  a  mate  in  the  same 
condition.  He  was  assured  that  he  might  be  reason- 
ably certain,  after  following  these  precepts,  of  long 
life,  happiness,  and  healthy  children. 

Eight  years  after  this  advice  was  given,  it  became 
apparent  that  this  son  was  having  a  great  deal  of  worry 
and  mental  disturbance  over  some  of  these  questions. 

His  letters  indicated  that  he  was  pessimistic,  dis- 
couraged, and  losing  efficiency.  The  following  extracts 
from  correspondence  about  this  time,  speak  for  them- 
selves : 

Dear  Ma, 

I  have  been  having  another  one  of  those  long,  miserable 
spells  when  I  feel  like  staying  up  so  late  every  night  that 
I  can't  help  but  sleep  when  I  do  go  to  bed.  I  have  done 
a  great  many  different  things  to  accomplish  this,  we  have 
played  cards  a  good  many  nights,  we  have  played  pool 
several,  though  I  have  control  of  that  game  now  and  play 
it  only  once  in  a  while.     We  have  bowled  a  few  nights.     I 

have  been  out  with  the  two  A girls  who  are  down  here, 

several  times.  I  have  worked  a  good  many  nights  until 
late.  Three  nights  I  have  stayed  here  all  night.  One 
night  I  slept  two  hours,  the  other  nights  not  at  all,  worked 
all  night  and  then  all  the  next  day  too,  but  twice  I  have 
taken  offence  at  little  things  H.  has  said,  and  I  have  given 
him  every  excuse  for  firing  me,  and  once  I  very  nearly  quit 
and  left  D.,  but  then  he  convinced  me  that  this  was  fool- 
ish, and  here  I  am.  If  my  personal  affairs  will  only  go 
along  smoothly  for  a  while,  I  have  no  doubt  I  shall  stay 
here  indefinitely,  and  regardless  of  all  things,  I  feel  that  I 
am  steadily  making  good. 

After  several  similar  letters,  the  physician  wrote 
something  as  follows : 

Dear  X., 

It  seems  to  me  that  your  letters  indicate  an  unsettled 


£00  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

condition  of  mind.  Your  irregular  and  prolonged  hours 
of  work  and  exaggerated  attempts  at  mild  dissipation  indi- 
cate the  same.  You  seemed  anxious  for  a  talk.  Now  I 
am  going  to  read  between  the  lines  of  letters  to  me  and 
your  mother,  and  guess  that  there  are  some  phases  of  the 
sex  question  troubling  you.  Years  ago,  I  tried  to  make 
these  matters  clear,  and  have  been  much  gratified  that  I 
did  influence  you  on  the  most  important  point  of  all,  for  I 
am  thoroughly  convinced  from  observations  and  assurances 
that  you  have  never  indulged  in  promiscuity.  I  tried  also 
at  that  time  to  make  it  plain  to  you  that  sex  would  be  a 
troublesome  problem,  and  that  when  it  became  so,  I  could 
give  you  further  help.  For  some  reason,  perhaps  because 
of  lack  of  opportunity,  you  have  not  consulted  me  further. 
Now  I  am  going  to  guess  again  that  I  was  not  definite 
enough  then,  and  try  to  be  so  now.  You  are  a  virile  man, 
a  chip,  I  suspect,  of  the  old  block.  You  have  assumed 
that  absolute  prohibition  of  all  sex  promiscuity  meant  that 
my  ideal,  which  I  wished  you  to  live  up  to,  was  absolute 
continence.  This  is  not  necessarily  so.  Absolute  conti- 
nence procured  without  serious  consequences  to  soma  or 
psyche  is  highly  desirable,  the  most  laudable  of  ideals. 
But  this  is  an  ideal  seldom  arrived  at,  and  I  believe  seldom 
possible  in  our  present  state  of  civilization.  You  and  I 
are  surely  agreed  that  any  incontinence  which  involves  an- 
other is  not  only  execrable  from  a  moral  standpoint,  but 
almost  sure  to  bring  physical  disaster  on  self  and  others. 
During  sexual  immaturity,  and  even  after  full  development, 
marriage  may  be  inadvisable  or  impracticable  for  a  time. 
When  sex  desires  become  physically  and  psychically  op- 
pressive, some  auto-erotic  relief  is  practically  universal 
among  the  best  people,  and  I  believe  perfectly  justifiable 
and  absolutely  moral.  At  any  rate  I  have  preached  this, 
and  I  preach  no  doctrine  which  I  have  not  accepted  or 
would  not  accept  under  the  specified  conditions. 

I  want  3'ou  to  know  that  your  mother  and  I  have  been 
through  these  things  and  have  experienced  just  such  wor- 
ries and  disturbances,  as  has  all  that  part  of  humanity  that 
has  any  ideals  or  aspirations.  It  is  due  you  to  know  that 
you  children  are  no  mix-up.  Neither  your  mother  nor  I 
have  ever  known,  in  the  Scriptural  sense,  any  one  but  each 


MISTAKES  OF  A  PHYSICIAN  201 

other.  So  far  as  that  goes,  you  have  a  perfectly  clean 
heredity,  though  we  have  had  the  same  worries  in  the 
early  days,  fought  the  same  battles,  not  always  with  great 
success,  that  you  probably  now  are  fighting.  I  should  ad- 
vise you  to  have  much  less  anxiety  over  the  matters  and 
some  less  determination  to  stick  to  the  ideal  of  absolute 
continence  than  I  had.  Whenever  it  is  convenient,  you  are 
welcome  to  the  details  of  my  experience,  if  they  are  of  any 
use  to  you.  I  have  a  book  in  press,  dealing  with  these  mat- 
ters, and  when  it  is  out,  I  will  send  you  a  copy. 

Now,  you  know  us  pretty  well,  and  we  are  a  good  deal 
like  most  of  our  friends  and  acquaintances,  whom  you  also 
know.  You  can  size  up  the  situation  for  yourself.  I  hope 
I  have  hit  the  points  which  trouble  you. 

After  you  have  done  with  this  letter  I  am  perfectly  will- 
ing that  you  should  send  it  on  to  the  rest  of  "  the  bunch." 
We  have  already  talked  pretty  freely  with  some  of  them 
when  circumstances  seemed  to  warrant  it. 

Your  affectionate  Father. 

Dear  Pa, 

I  do  not  appear  at  all  serious  to  the  world,  but  until 
lately  I  have  been  unable  to  check  very  frequent  spells  of 
violent  crying.  For  the  past  two  months  I  have  avoided 
these,  and  I  think  I  have  found  the  cause  of  them.  I  have 
worried  about  whether  the  course  I  have  steered  has  been 
right  or  wrong.  You  said  that  you  had  known  but  one 
woman.  In  the  same  sense  I  have  never  known  a  woman, 
and  several  times  I  have  been  almost  convinced  that  I  was 
a  fool.  The  pressure  of  sex  has  been  very  heavy  upon  me 
when  I  have  been  alone.  For  a  long  time,  I  have  known 
that  relief  was  possible ;  but  I  have  never  found  anything  to 
even  hint  that  relief  was  justifiable,  even  for  the  purpose 
of  saving  one's  health,  maybe  one's  brain,  or  maybe  one's 
life,  except  intercourse  with  a  lawfully  wedded  wife. 

Now,  unless  I've  misread  your  letter,  it  has  been  nearly 
criminal  for  me  to  exist  at  two  different  times  for  periods 
of  six  weeks  with  no  relief  whatever.  Interesting  from  a 
doctor's  viewpoint?  I  wonder.  Criminal,  I  say,  because 
I  should  aim  to  help  society  all  possible.  By  making  tlie 
most  of  myself,  I   help  society.     By  putting  myself  in  a 


^02  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

position  where  it  becomes  practically  imperative  that  I  keep 
my  mind  off  myself  by  such  means  as  playing  poker  and 
pool  for  money,  working  all  night  long  at  brain-work,  then 
doing  more  or  less  manual  work  days  to  keep  myself  as 
physically  tired  out  as  possible,  incidentally  eating,  recreat- 
ing, and  sleeping  irregularly,  I  directly  hurt  society,  so  I 
have  wondered  what  was  right.  I've  even  been  almost  con- 
vinced that  the  only  right  course  to  pursue  would  be  to 
have  what  I  suppose  you  would  call  a  "  mistress."  Can 
you  appreciate  what  I  have  had  to  worry  about.''  If  you 
can,  please  let  me  know  it.  I  have  availed  myself  of  the 
contents  of  your  letter  in  shaping  my  policy  from  now  on, 
and  am  giving  it  the  same  credence  that  is  given  the  Bible, 
so  you'd  better  be  right.  You  see,  I  only  have  your  word 
for  something  that  I  wanted  to  believe,  but  I  may  have 
misconstrued  your  meaning.  It  is  after  2  a.  m.  and  I 
wanted  to  tell  you  that  I  feel  that  I  am  making  good  at 
the  office,  and  about  our  home-life  and  the  people  I  know 
here  and  at  the  office,  etc.,  but  I  must  close.  Let  this  let- 
ter stand  for  my  appreciation  of  the  effort  evident  in  your 
letter,  and  believe  that  I  am  beginning  to  know  how  to  love 
the  best  father  and  mother  there  are. 

A  son's  love. 

From  X. 
Dear  X, 

Instead  of  your  conduct  with  women  up  to  date  being 
foolish,  it  has  been,  in  my  estimation,  and  in  that  of  your 
mother,  and  in  that  of  all  well-meaning  people,  the  surest 
evidence  of  wisdom,  foresight,  and  character.  I  tried  to 
have  you  steer  such  a  course  when  you  went  away  to  school. 
If  I  had  any  influence  upon  you  to  that  end,  it  is  a  matter 
of  more  self-congratulation  for  me  than  anything  I  ever 
did  in  my  life  except  marrying  your  mother.  I  think  you 
guessed  correctly,  that  crying  spells,  depression  at  times, 
perhaps  your  whole  recent  throat  trouble,  etc.,  are  nervous 
manifestations,  largely  the  result  of  sex  repression  and 
sex  worry,  but  the  game  is  worth  the  candle.  If  you  are 
satisfied  tliat  you  are  right  and  doing  all  right,  the  symp- 
toms will  disappear.  But  certainly  to  injure  your  health 
by  repression  is  unjustifiable  when  moderate  relief  without 
involving  any  one  else  is  entirely  innocuous. 


MISTAKES  OF  A  PHYSICIAN  203 

You  did  not  in  the  least  misunderstand  my  letter.  When 
I  tried  to  impress  upon  you  the  moral  and  physical  dan- 
gers of  promiscuous  relations,  before  you  went  to  college, 
I  also  tried  to  impress  upon  you  that  if  you  ever  found 
continence  too  great  a  burden,  I  would  be  glad  to  advise 
and  help  you.  I  probably  bungled  it.  Anyway,  you  have 
been  a  long  while  in  coming,  but  at  your  age,  no  harm  is 
done  except  the  punishment  you  have  been  through;  and 
those  of  us  who  try  to  conform  to  a  high  standard  all  have 
some  punishment.  I  had,  but  have  had  pay  for  it  ten 
thousandfold,  and  I  believe  you  will,  only  be  sure  —  what- 
ever else  her  qualifications  —  that  you  find  a  girl  who 
thinks  the  same  way.  It  will  be  no  discredit  to  her,  if 
she  has  had  the  same  trials  and  tortures  which  you  have 
and  has  resorted  to  the  same  mode  of  relief.  Once  again, 
you  have  not  misconstrued  my  meaning.  The  responsibil- 
ity is  great  if  you  accept  my  word  as  Bible,  but  in  this 
matter,  I  am  willing  to  accept  the  responsibility  fully.  I 
know  the  inner  lives  of  hundreds  of  the  best  people.  I 
have  advised  many  for  many  years,  and  I  have  no  cause 
for  regret.  I  am  giving  my  ideas  to  the  world,  and  shall 
be  criticised  by  the  ignorant  and  narrow-minded;  but  after 
working  twenty-five  years  in  this  line,  I  am  read}'  to  back 
my  thesis  against  all  comers.  I  am  sending  you  a  copy  of 
my  book,  which  is  just  out.  I  thank  you  for  your  confi- 
dence, and  I  don't  think  you  will  regret  it. 

Your  affectionate  Father. 
Dear  Pa, 

I  brought  home  twelve  hours'  office  work  to  do  before 
Mon.  A.M.,  but  started  the  book  at  1.45  and  don't  know 
when  I'll  leave  it.  All  the  way  to  the  bottom  of  page  — 
kept  noticing  how  like  my  case,  except  for  ages  cited,  this 
was.  Then  at  practically  the  last  word  in  the  case,  I 
knew  I  knew  the  narrator.  He  shall  have  every  word  of 
mine  when  I  can  see  him.  In  some  ways,  I'm  sure  it's  as 
interesting,  and  I  could  write  a  book  on  the  details.  I  may 
yet,  for  I've  really  studied,  and  I  plan  to  discuss  these  mat- 
ters when  I  can,  in  the  hope  of  doing  what  you  are  doing, 
helping  this  world  the  little  I  may.  I  think  tliat  in  after 
years  the  things  you  advocate  may  be  called  the  best  means 
of    answering    that    continual    question    (in   the   minds    of 


204»  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

youth,  at  least),  "What  is  the  right  and  what,  wrong?" 
that  ever  will  be  written  —  I  admit  that  I,  for  one,  feel 
that  your  theory  is  as  plausible,  and  its  proof  as  conclusive, 
as  Darwin's  theory  of  evolution,  and  perhaps  more  so, 
though  until  I  read  your  first  expressions  on  the  subject  I'd 
never  dared  to  hope  that  so  convincing  an  answer  to  the 
greatest  problem  could  be  formulated.     Thanks  for  book. 

From  X. 

The  matters  thus  far  taken  up  by  correspondence 
between  physician  and  son  were  gone  over  more  fully 
during  a  visit  some  six  months  later.  It  developed 
that  previous  to  the  talk  on  his  departure  for  college, 
this  son  already  had  had  some  experience  with  auto- 
erotism, which  he  was  unwilling  to  acknowledge.  He 
gained  the  impression  from  the  father's  talk  that  any 
conscious  sex  expression  before  marriage  was  unjus- 
tifiable. He  possessed  the  abundant  virility  which  goes 
with  physical  strength  and  unusual  activity.  He  made 
a  prolonged  fight  against  auto-erotism,  which  became 
his  bete  noir.  Occasional  lapses  were  inevitable,  and 
always  attended  by  great  self-condemnation.  The 
struggle  became  so  severe  that  he  was  many  times  on 
the  point  of  giving  up  the  whole  battle  and  going  with 
women,  as  did  practically  all  the  other  men  of  his  ac- 
quaintance. The  correspondence  came  at  a  time  when 
he  must  soon  have  given  up  to  the  demands  of  sex,  or 
have  become  a  confirmed  neurotic.  The  correspondence 
already  recorded  shows  how  he  solved  these  questions. 
All  tendency  to  any  neurosis  immediately  disappeared, 
and  he  married  very  happily  about  one  year  after  the 
first  letter. 

If  the  physician  had  not  been  somewhat  in  touch  with 
this  young  man  and  at  the  same  time  had  not  possessed 
some  tact  and  insight,  the  result  of  his  early  overideal- 
istic  instruction  would  have  been  entirely  futile. 


CHAPTER  XI 
INCroENTAL  OBSERVATIONS 

SEX    DREAMS    A    SUBSTITUTE    FOR    VOLUNTARY    SEX 

EXPRESSION 

I  HAVE  remarked  elsewhere  that,  of  the  several  hun- 
dred women  whose  sex  histories  I  have  obtained,  less 
than  a  half  dozen  have  denied  practising  some  form  of 
conscious  auto-erotism  at  some  time  in  their  lives.  I 
have  now  two  more  cases  to  add  to  this  number  and, 
though  one  of  these  does  not  strictly  belong  in  this  list, 
the  auto-erotism  was  so  infrequent  and  so  nearly  in- 
voluntary, that  I  shall  consider  the  case  as  if  it  were 
absent  altogether. 

Usually  it  is  impossible  to  get  more  than  the  most 
fragmentary  sex  history  from  a  woman  who  denies  auto- 
erotism. The  few  women  who  have,  or  pretend  to  have, 
entire  control  of  their  sex  feelings,  or  who  persistently 
maintain  that  they  have  no  such  feelings,  are  more 
reticent,  more  self-conscious,  and  have  much  poorer 
memories  than  those  who  are  frank  in  admitting  sex  de- 
sire and  the  ordinary  lapses  from  the  ancient  standards. 

These  two  cases,  however,  have  given  full  and  frank 

histories,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  are  absolutely 

accurate.     I   refer   to   cases   d   and   i   in   the   chapter 

entitled,  Sex  Histories.     I  shall  not  repeat  them  here 

in  full,  but  mention  only  such  facts  as   relate  to  the 

present  discussion.     By  referring  to  case  d,  it  will  be 

noted  that  this  woman,  seventy-three  years  of  age,  had 

been  married  twice,  always  had  experienced  very  fre- 

205 


206  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

quent  and  persistent  erotic  feelings  after  the  age  of 
seventeen,  was  always  able  to  respond  immediately  to 
the  sexual  advances  of  either  of  her  husbands,  and 
when  in  the  single  state,  even  to  the  present  time,  has 
suffered  great  tortures  from  sexual  desire.  From  the 
first  advent  of  her  sexual  impulse  she  has  had  frequent 
voluptuous  dreams  with  orgasm.  This  has  been  her 
only  sex  relief  when  single,  with  the  exception  of  at 
times  awakening  at  the  beginning  or  in  the  midst  of 
an  orgasm,  when  she  has  helped  to  complete  this  man- 
ually. 

Case  i  is  that  of  a  woman  of  thirty-five,  married  at 
twenty-five,  who  never  practised  auto-erotism,  but  be- 
gan to  have  voluptuous  dreams  at  the  age  of  sixteen, 
when  her  first  menstruation  occurred.  Up  to  the  time 
of  her  marriage  these  continued,  with  greater  or  less 
frequency,  depending  on  her  proximity  to  the  menstrual 
period,  or  whether  or  not  she  was  much  in  the  company 
of  the  man  who  became  her  husband.  Since  marriage, 
during  her  husband's  absences,  she  has  suffered  in- 
tensely from  sexual  desire,  although  his  absences  were 
short  and  sexual  dreams  were  frequent.  At  times,  be- 
fore marriage,  there  would  be  an  interval  of  two  or 
three  weeks  between  these  sex  dreams ;  but  when  keep- 
ing company  with  the  young  man  she  had  these  dreams 
practically  every  night,  and  often  several  in  a  night. 

The  writer  of  the  letter  of  criticism  in  the  introduc- 
tion to  this  book  has  the  opinion  that  emissions  or  other 
sleep  manifestations  should  afford  all  necessary  sex 
relief  to  the  unmarried.  This  is  a  very  common  belief 
among  those  who  have  theorized  largely  concerning  sex 
ethics,  but  who,  it  is  plain,  have  not  learned  all  the 
actual  facts.  In  my  reply  to  that  criticism,  in  the 
Case  of  Hysteria  and  in  the  chapter  on  Popular  Teach- 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  20T 

ing  in  Rational  Sex  Ethics,  I  have  discussed  this  mat- 
ter from  an  entirely  different  viewpoint.  The  two 
cases  above  apparently  offer  strong  evidence  in  support 
of  the  opinion  of  my  critic  and  tliose  who  have  similar 
views.  While  these  two  cases  demonstrate  the  possi- 
bility of  sex  experiences  in  sleep  being  adequate  sex 
expression  for  the  unmarried  woman,  the  extreme  rarity 
of  such  cases  (these  being  the  only  cases  I  have  dis- 
covered) makes  stronger  my  contention  that  ordinarily, 
some  conscious  sex  expression  in  auto-erotism  is  neces- 
sary. Discussion  of  these  questions  with  these  two 
women  revealed  that  both  believed  that,  had  not  these 
sleep  manifestations  been  frequent,  no  exercise  of  will, 
nor  any  regimen,  nor  any  moral  scruple  could  have 
prevented  frequent  conscious  sex  relief  of  some  kind. 
Even  as  it  was,  their  sufferings  were  intense,  and  their 
powers  of  resistance  were  taxed  to  the  utmost. 

Now,  we  all  know  very  well  that  the  ordinary  man 
or  woman  is  not  like  these  two  cases.  Even  in  the 
cases  which  I  have  collected,  one  cannot  fail  to  note 
that,  while  very  frequently,  the  sex  instinct  is  just  as 
strongly  developed  as  in  the  two  referred  to,  emissions 
or  other  sleep  phenomena  occur  with  much  less  fre- 
quency and  regularity  and,  as  a  rule,  only  after  pro- 
longed sex  excitement,  perhaps  lasting  for  days  or  weeks 
before  the  relief  occurred ;  while  in  these  cases,  though 
sex  excitement  was  often  of  daily  occurrence,  relief  as 
regularly  followed  on  the  night  after  the  excitement. 
Many  authors  go  so  far  as  to  claim  that  unmarried 
women  who  have  not  had  sexual  intercourse  never  have 
voluptuous  dreams  with  orgasm.  INIy  observations 
flatly  contradict  this,  since  I  have  found  hardly  an  un- 
married woman  who  has  not  had  occasional  sleep  mani- 
festations corresponding  to  emissions  in  unmarried  men. 


208  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Nevertheless,  these  experiences  are  usually  very  infre- 
quent, and  both  sexes  have  many  periods  of  excessive 
sex  excitement  without  any  succeeding  nocturnal  relief. 
The  nocturnal  experiences  in  young  women  under 
twenty  or  twenty-five,  though  almost  invariable,  are 
much  less  frequent  than  those  of  young  men  of  cor- 
responding age,  but  after  the  period  of  full  maturity 
they  are  often  more  frequent  than  in  men  of  the  same 
age.  When,  as  was  the  case  with  these  two  women, 
and  as  is  the  case  with  some  men,  complete  nocturnal 
sex  relief  occurs  shortly  after  the  first  troublesome 
erotic  feelings,  and  then  recurs  again  before  sex  ex- 
citement again  becomes  intense,  the  persons  in  ques- 
tion look  forward  to  this  expected  relief  and  have 
courage  to  continue  the  struggle  for  continence,  feel- 
ing sure  that  this  relief  will  come  soon.  It  can  be  pre- 
dicted with  certainty  that  persistent  erotic  feelings  on 
a  given  day  will  be  followed  by  nocturnal  relief  that 
night,  and  after  that  freedom  from  such  feelings  for 
some  days  to  come.  One  of  my  cases,  after  a  day  of 
erotic  excitement,  had  a  night  without  emission  and 
no  special  erotic  disturbance  the  next  day,  but  an  emis- 
sion invariably  that  night.  While  the  struggle  for  con- 
tinence often  is  severe  with  people  o-f  this  type,  it  is  by 
no  means  impossible,  and  there  is  no  apparent  injury  to 
health,  and  little  prospect  of  neurosis.  It  is  a  different 
matter,  however,  where  the  sex  excitement  is  —  as  I  have 
characterized  it  in  another  chapter  —  cumulative,  and 
no  spontaneous  relief  occurs,  or  at  least  only  at  very 
long  intervals.  The  more  I  investigate  the  lives  of 
people,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that  for  this  latter 
class,  which  I  am  sure  is  a  very  numerous  one,  absolute 
continence  for  any  great  length  of  time  is  impossible, 
or  accomplished  only  at  the  risk  of  injury  to  the  virile 


INCroENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  209 

power,  or  of  bringing  on  a  severe  neurosis.  There 
seems  to  be  no  legitimate  relief  for  such  people  when 
single,  or  long  separated  from  their  mates  except  con- 
scious auto-erotism,  which,  I  maintain,  is  as  salutary 
and  as  ethical  for  them  as  are  the  sleep  manifestations 
for  the  men  and  women  who  have  easy-working  safety- 
valves. 

It  is  impossible  to  state  with  accuracy  the  relative 
size  of  these  two  classes,  but  the  evidence  so  far 
obtained  shows  that  those  for  whom  involuntary  sex 
expression  is  an  adequate  outlet,  form  a  much  smaller 
class  than  those  who  have  very  little  such  expression 
or  whose  only  relief  must  be  voluntary.  I  long  have 
acted  on  my  belief  that  ^^oung  people  in  general  have 
high  enough  aspirations  and  lofty  enough  ideals,  or 
may  readily  be  taught  them,  so  that  they  may  safely 
be  taught  these  palpable  truths  and  others  about  the 
sex  life.  They  can  be  trusted  safely  to  work  out  their 
problems,  striving  for  such  a  state  of  relative  or  abso- 
lute continence  as  is  healthful,  feasible,  or  possible. 
When  they  know  all  the  facts,  they  are  likely  to  obtain 
such  auto-erotic  relief  as  is  necessary  for  health  and 
the  prevention  of  extreme  discomfort.  They  are  not 
likely  to  resort  to  a  form  of  incontinence  which  in- 
volves others,  and  invites  venereal  disease.  Those  who 
we  feel  ought  not  to  be  trusted  with  all  the  facts,  will 
not  be  influenced  by  any  teaching  or  argument,  but  will 
always  choose  the  selfish  path,  involving  least  resist- 
ance. 

KNOWLEDGE    AND    TRUST    NECESSARY    FOR    THE    NEWLY 

MARRIED 

Readers  of  these  pages  may  be  interested  to  know 
that  the  cases  yielding  the  facts  on  which  this  writing 


210  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

is  based  are,  in  general,  not  copied  from  books,  nor  are 
they  ordinarily  old  memories.  During  the  eight  weeks 
in  which  I  have  been  writing  two  smaller  books  and 
most  of  this  one,  a  large  part  of  the  material  on  which 
they  are  based  has  incidentally  come  to  hand.  These 
things  have  not  been  sought  especially  —  indeed,  there 
has  been  little  opportunity  for  seeking,  since  I  am  not 
pretending,  at  present,  to  attend  to  my  customary 
practice,  but  am  sitting  around,  pretty  well  isolated 
in  rather  a  small  town.  When  such  cases  as  the  one 
referred  to  in  the  introduction  to  this  book,  and  the 
one  used  as  basis  for  the  present  chapter,  together  with 
some  of  the  facts  used  in  the  chapter  entitled,  Ques- 
tions and  Answers,  and  under  the  title.  Is  Continence 
Necessary  to  Highest  Endeavor?  together  with  many 
others,  are  the  incidental  acquirement  of  the  writer  in 
so  short  a  time,  in  such  isolation,  it  must  be  apparent 
to  all  that  there  is  abundant  reason  for  my  contention 
that  ignorance  of  vital  matters  is  dense  and  all-pervad- 
ing. The  simple  remedies  and  ready  relief  show  the 
ease  with  which  matters  may  be  improved  if  we  are 
awake  to  conditions  and  make  some  earnest,  intelligent 
effort. 

Returning  to  our  title,  we  have  recently  been  instill- 
ing into  the  minds  of  young  men  and  women  a  whole- 
some dread  of  the  horrors  of  venereal  disease.  This 
never  can  be  overdone,  and  we  should  not  relax  in  our 
efforts ;  but  let  us  not,  while  warning  against  these  dan- 
gers, become  careless  in  our  diagnosis,  nor  lead  young 
people  to  condemn  the  innocent  without  evidence. 

Those  who  have  read  Scott's  Fair  Maid  of  Perth 
have  not  failed  to  note  the  insufficiency  of  one-sided 
knowledge.  It  was  not  enough  for  Henry  of  the  Wynd 
to  teach  his  treacherous   adversary  the  thrust  which 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  211 

should  pierce  the  joints  of  an  enemy's  armor.  The 
smith  makes  this  plain  when  he  says  to  his  djdng  an- 
tagonist, "  Fool,  I  taught  thee  the  thrust,  but  not  the 
parr}^"  For  complete  safety  one  must  learn  both 
offense  and  defense.  So,  in  teaching  our  young  people 
to  avoid  venereal  disease,  we  must  beware  that  this 
knowledge  does  not,  at  times,  act  as  a  boomerang. 

Urethritis  is  not  always  gonorrhoea.  At  least  two 
causes  besides  the  gonococcus  are  at  times  responsible 
for  this  condition.  If  all  people  were  as  conscientiously 
clean  as  the  young  couple  hereinafter  described,  there 
might  be  little  danger  of  trouble ;  and  still,  as  will  be 
seen,  they  passed  through  a  period  of  deep  gloom  and 
anxiety,  and  both  their  lives  might  have  been  wrecked 
had  not  this  young  wife  pursued  the  obvious  course 
of  consulting  the  specialist, —  a  course  which  she  would 
hardly  have  pursued  unless,  as  was  the  case,  she  had 
escaped,  to  some  extent,  the  sex  fear  and  pinidery 
which,  till  recently,  have  been  almost  universal. 

The  following  letter  was  written  by  a  young  wife 
whose  husband  is  among  our  soldiers  at  the  front : 

You  are  quite  aware  of  the  practical  knowledge  C.  had 
of  marriage  relations  before  his  marriage.  He  had  none, 
at  least  that  is  what  he  told  me,  and  from  his  actions,  em- 
barrassment, etc.,  the  first  night  we  were  together,  I  readily 
believed  him,  although  he  afterwards  suggested  that  he 
might  have  aiFected  all  this  to  deceive  me.  I  do  not  think 
a  clear-sighted,  modern  woman,  who  has  banged  around  the 
world  as  I  have,  could  be  easily  fooled  in  such  a  matter. 
It  is  very  hard  for  me  to  sit  here  and  put  all  this  on  paper, 
harder  than  you  realize,  for  in  spite  of  a  fixed  and  old  de- 
termination to  throw  off  the  old  bugbear  of  false  modesty, 
it  still  hampers  me  enough  to  make  the  writing  of  this  very 
difficult.  I  really  do  think  that  C.  had  intended  to  go  back 
to  camp  after  his  wedding  without  any  sexual  relations 
whatever.     I  may  be  wrong  for  once,  but  I  think  that  was 


212  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

his  endeavor,  and  he  fought  the  good  fight  from  about  one 
o'clock  until  somewhere  around  six  in  the  morning.  I  do 
not  know  whether  he  derived  any  satisfaction,  I  know  I 
did  not.  It  was  very  painful  for  me,  and  I  had  a  peculiar 
feeling,  as  if  I  were  choking.  Then  I  cried.  About  two 
hours  later,  we  were  more  successful,  but  not  for  me. 

The  following  night  he  had  to  leave  for  camp  on  the 
12.20  train,  and  we  therefore  did  not  undress  fully.  How- 
ever, to  my  complete  surprise,  he  was  excited  enough  to  de- 
sire intercourse,  and  as  I  was  desirous  too,  this  happened, 
and  I  had  complete  satisfaction  for  the  first  time.  The  in- 
tense emotion,  being  more  than  anything  I  ever  had  imag- 
ined, broke  me  down  completely,  and  poor  C.  thought  I  was 
ill.     His  concern  was  most  amusing  —  afterwards. 

Before  that,  I  never  had  any  desire  for  sexual  relations 
of  any  kind,  although,  as  you  know,  I  have  a  voluptuous 
nature,  and  was  always  intensely  attracted  by  the  opposite 
sex.  I  have  had  scores  of  boy  friends  and  always  liked  to 
choose  among  foreigners  of  Southern  and  Eastern  blood, 
because  they  were  warmer  and  more  passionate  lovers,  and 
yet,  any  attempt  at  familiarity  would  disgust  me,  and  one 
more  would  lose  my  friendship.  When  I  first  became  ac- 
quainted with  C.  I  was  on  very  great  terms  of  friendship 
with  one  A.  J.,  the  son  of  a  wealthy  Brazilian,  and  at  an- 
other time  with  a  young  Italian  of  wealth  and  education. 
I  do  not  know  why  I  liked  these  boys,  I  could  not  have 
married  either  of  them,  but  I  liked  their  wild,  hot  natures, 
which  seemed  to  be  in  accord  with  my  own.  They  were 
daring,  so  was  I.  I  went  to  cabarets  with  them  and  en- 
joyed life,  such  as  it  was.  I  had  nothing  else  to  do,  and 
if  I  stayed  at  home  I  would  think  too  much.  They  did  not 
stop  to  consider  things  in  the  usual,  cold-blooded,  American 
way,  and  I  think  that  is  why  I  finally  consented  to  marry 
C. —  because  he  went  ahead  and  did  not  sleep  on  the  job. 

I  said  that  before  my  marriage  I  had  no  desire  for  sex- 
ual intercourse,  but  since  then  it  seems  that,  sometimes,  I 
cannot  control  myself,  and,  in  this  connection,  I  want  to 
tell  you  something  before  I  go  further  with  my  story.  C. 
seems  to  think  that  any  great  desire  shown  on  his  part 
makes  our  love  appear  low  and  degrading.  He  wants 
our  love  to  be  set  apart  from  these  desires;  but  I  say  that 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  213 

this  cannot  be,  for  with  the  true  love  of  man  for  woman 
there  is  nothing  low  or  degrading  in  fulfilling  the  natural 
desires  of  this  same  love,  desires  which  are  part  of  us,  like 
the  desire  for  fine  music,  etc.     Am  I  right  or  wrong? 

The  second  time  C.  came  in  from  camp,  which  was  about 
two  weeks  after,  it  was  my  menstruating  period,  and  al- 
though it  was  very  hard  for  us  both,  myself  especially, 
at  this  time,  we  agreed  that  nothing  should  happen,  and 
nothing  did,  for  which  I  am  truly  thankful.  A  little  later 
he  was  home  for  four  days,  and  I  believe  we  had  inter- 
course at  this  time  every  night  at  least  twice  each  night, 
an  interval  of  a  few  hours'  sleep  between.  You  must  un- 
derstand, we  were  both  very  ignorant  indeed  on  this  sub- 
ject, and  we  had  to  slowly  learn  all  the  rudiments;  but 
with  a  little  thought  and  what  you  might  call  concentra- 
tion we  were  successful  twice  in  getting  complete  satisfac- 
tion together,  which  was  the  result  we  wanted.  This  was 
on  the  last  night  of  his  leave. 

A  week  later  I  decided  to  surprise  him,  and  went  down 
to  camp  to  see  him.  Then  he  had  some  news  for  me  which 
made  the  whole  world  black.  It  appears  that  on  that  last 
night,  he  had  felt  a  strange  soreness,  and  although  he  re- 
marked about  it  at  that  time,  I,  knowing  nothing  of  such 
matters,  took  no  notice.  On  the  next  day  there  was  a  gen- 
eral inspection  at  the  camp,  and  the  doctor  stopped  at  him 
and  questioned  him  in  the  most  humiliating  manner  and  de- 
manded that  he  rejaort  at  the  hospital.  Of  course  I  do 
not  know  what  there  was  to  show  to  occasion  this,  but  ap- 
parently there  was,  and  when  C.  reported  at  the  hospital, 
he  was  entered  on  the  list  of  venereal  patients.  You  can 
imagine  how  I  felt,  and  how  he  felt,  but  I  can  truthfully 
swear  that  never  once  did  one  thought  of  doubting  his  word 
ever  enter  my  mind.  I  felt  sure  of  my  man,  and  I  trusted 
him.  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not  he  felt  that  way  toward 
me,  but  I  think  he  did. 

Anyway,  it  was  a  terrible  few  weeks  for  us  both,  and 
I  determined,  as  soon  as  it  was  possible,  to  see  an  expert 
physician.  All  kinds  of  thoughts  passed  through  my  head. 
I  tortured  myself,  wondering  if  possibly  I  was  to  blame, 
having  read  that  such  diseases  could  be  communicated 
through  kissing,   and   I   had  kissed  all  my   friends   to   my 


214  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

heart's  content.  However,  to  end  a  long  story,  I  went  to 
Dr.  G.,  a  well  known  specialist  here,  and  had  two  exami- 
nations, one  being  a  laboratory  examination,  which  he  said 
was  absolutely  authentic;  and  he  pronounced  me  absolutely 
pure,  with  the  exception  of  a  little  leucorrhoea,  which  he 
said  probably  was  caused  by  my  mental  work  and  nervous 
temperament. 

Strange  to  say,  that  same  week  things  looked  better  at 
the  camp  for  C,  and  although  he  was  not  finally  discharged 
from  the  lists,  he  was  allowed  to  come  home,  which  we  con- 
sidered a  good  sign.  The  desire  for  intercourse  with  me 
at  this  time  was  so  bad  that  I  was  almost  irritable,  but  I 
knew  it  could  not  be,  as  he  was  in  great  pain,  especially 
when  sexually  excited,  so  I  controlled  myself  for  that  time. 
I  took  him  to  see  Dr.  G.,  who  made  an  examination  of  him 
and  talked  with  us  both  for  over  an  hour.  He  laughed 
at  the  idea  of  a  venereal  disease.  He  said  it  was  merely 
a  touch  of  urethritis,  caused  by  contact  with  the  acid  in 
my  leucorrhcea.  He  said  that  some  of  those  doctors  at 
the  camp  who  classed  C.  as  a  venereal  patient  should  be 
herding  sheep. 

C.  has  been  home  twice  since  then.  The  first  time  we 
had  intercourse  the  same  as  before  the  trouble,  without  such 
satisfactory  results,  but  without  the  slightest  discomfort, 
and  with  no  complications. 

This  little  incident  may  look  small  on  paper,  but  it  was 
nearly  a  tragedy  to  us.  If  we  had  not  had  such  great  faith 
in  each  other  it  might  have  been  the  means  of  breaking  up 
our  lives,  especially  as  we  were  parted  and  could  not  talk 
things  over.  We  just  trusted,  and  we  won  out.  It  was  a 
mistake  made  through  ignorance,  and  one  which  is  liable 
to  be  made  every  day  with  more  disastrous  results.  If  this 
letter  is  of  any  use  to  you  professionally  you  are  at  liberty 
to  use  it,  as  I  know  you  will  use  discretion. 

The  diagnosis  made  by  the  doctor  that  the  young 
man's  benign  urethritis  was  caused  by  the  young  wom- 
an's leucorrhcea  is  very  likely  correct,  but  there  is  still 
another  cause,  outside  the  gonococcus,  usually  over- 
looked, which  might  as  easily  have  been  responsible  for 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  215 

it.  Knowing  as  I  do  the  previous  history,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  it  was  this  usually  unrecognized  cause 
which  was  at  the  seat  of  the  trouble.  It  sounds  like  a 
paradox,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  more  pure, 
continent,  and  moral  a  young  man  or  a  young  woman 
may  be,  especially  if  they  be  at  the  acme  of  good  health, 
the  more  danger  there  is  of  their  showing  a  few  transient 
symptoms  which,  to  the  unsophisticated  or  the  care- 
less, may  have  the  appearance  of  venereal  disease.  It 
is  hard  to  imagine  any  greater  humiliation  or  suffering 
than  is  the  lot  of  the  upright  young  man  or  woman 
placed  under  any  such  suspicion. 

For  the  purpose  of  illustration,  and  to  put  us  on  our 
guard,  I  mention  a  few  cases  known  to  me.  The  first 
is  that  of  a  married  man  who  was  away  from  his  wife 
for  a  period  of  somewhat  less  than  two  months.  He 
did  not  then  have,  nor  has  he  ever  in  his  life  had  in- 
tercourse with  any  woman  except  his  wife,  and  he 
never  has  had  any  venereal  disease,  yet  on  his  return 
from  this  trip  he  presented  the  symptoms  of  gonorrhoea 
and  feared  that  he  had  contracted  this  in  some  inno- 
cent way.  What  really  did  occur  was  this.  He  had 
had  very  little  intercourse  for  some  time  before  leaving 
home.  While  away  his  duties  were  light,  and  various 
unavoidable  stimuli  to  erotic  feelings  were  present.  A 
young  woman  who  slept  on  the  same  floor  left  her  door 
open  every  night  apparently  as  an  invitation.  He 
saw  daily  many  young  men  and  women  in  bathing  cos- 
tume, but  though  they  were  partial  to  the  costume, 
they  were  not  ardent  patrons  of  the  sport.  He  saw 
them  occupied  with  the  usual  beach  pastime  of  "  spoon- 
ing." He  soon  began  to  suffer  from  a  high  degree  of 
erotic  excitement,  with  persistent  erections,  pain  in 
the  testes,  loins,  and  back  by  day,  and  sexual  dreams 


216  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

with  emission  at  night.  He  lost  flesh  rapidly,  and 
before  his  return  home,  he  developed  a  muco-purulent 
discharge  from  the  urethra.  On  attempting  to  resume 
intercourse  after  liis  return,  he  was  at  first  impotent, 
but  after  two  or  three  days  was  successful,  and  he 
regained  his  usual  health  after  about  three  weeks. 

Of  course  we  have,  by  means  of  the  microscope,  a  way 
to  settle  conclusively  all  such  cases,  but  the  man  him- 
self, or  his  wife,  may  not  know  this,  and  the  damage 
to  family  congeniality  may  be  done  before  the  physi- 
cian is  consulted.  Men  and  women  of  marriageable 
age  should  be  told  that  a  vaginal  discharge  is  often  in- 
nocent. A  discharge  from  the  male  urethra  is  not  al- 
ways a  gonorrhoea,  and  there  is  no  sure  way  of  telling 
except  by  means  of  the  microscope.  It  is,  therefore, 
always  safe  to  reserve  judgment  until  a  careful  search 
has  been  made  for  the  gonococci. 

In  another  chapter,  I  mention  four  women  who,  along 
with  a  very  ardent  sexual  impulse,  which  had  been  al- 
most entirely  repressed,  had  a  leucorrhoea,  which  ap- 
parently resulted  from  the  congestion  due  to  their 
ardent  impulses.  Anyway,  the  leucorrhoea  disappeared 
soon  after  these  women  established  a  regular  mode  of 
relief  for  their  sexual  desires. 

I  know  a  man  who,  after  passing  through  the  ordi- 
nary stimulating  experiences  of  the  engagement  period, 
began  to  have  pains  in  his  back  and  testes,  and  finally 
to  have  a  discharge  from  the  urethra.  He  consulted 
his  physician  on  account  of  this  condition.  The  physi- 
cian excluded  gonorrhoea  absolutely  and  explained  that 
sexual  excitement  and  the  resulting  congestion  had 
caused  his  difficulty.  Shortly  after  this,  he  was  mar- 
ried, and  the  discharge  and  other  symptoms  soon  dis- 
appeared. 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  217 

A  married  man,  whose  wife  was  indisposed,  or  be- 
came indifferent  for  a  time,  so  that  she  declined  his 
sexual  advances,  suffered  with  the  same  symptoms  as 
those  given  above.  After  remaining  continent,  in  def- 
erence to  his  wife's  preferences,  for  some  weeks,  he  con- 
sulted his  physician.  The  simple  prescription  that  he 
make  friends  with  his  wife  and  solicit  her  active  co- 
operation being  tactfully  carried  out  resulted  in  his 
almost  immediate  recovery. 

I  have  known  many  men  who,  after  from  two  to  four 
weeks  continent  separation  from  their  wives,  have  de- 
veloped a  slight  discharge  from  the  urethra,  over  and 
above  any  that  might  come  from  urethrorhoea  ex  libi- 
dine,  and  on  the  first  intercourse  wuth  their  wives  have 
suffered  most  excruciating  pain  at  the  moment  of  ejac- 
ulation. This  pain  might  last  only  a  few  seconds  or, 
in  rare  instances,  an  hour  or  more.  Possibly  it  might 
recur  at  the  next  connection,  but  it  was  always  only  a 
transient  difficulty.  For  this  reason,  paradoxical  as 
it  may  seem,  some  men,  who  ordinarily  desire  nothing 
so  much,  positively  dread  the  first  intercourse  when 
they  have  been  away  from  their  wives  for  some  time. 

The  young  man  whose  wife  wrote  to  me  never  had 
had  sexual  relations  with  any  woman  until  his  marriage 
and  always  had  made  desperate  attempts  to  maintain 
perfect  continence.  The  only  respite  had  been  auto- 
erotic  relief  at  long  intervals.  Even  this  had  been 
abandoned  before  his  marriage,  and  one  sees  from  her 
letter  that  his  attempts  at  repression  after  marriage 
Were  more  than  the  circumstances  warranted,  certainly 
more  than  his  wife  would  have  insisted  on.  This  state 
of  continence,  attended  by  strong  desire,  which  would 
cause  hyperaemia  and  tenderness,  was  sufficient  to  ac- 
count for   all  his   symptoms,  without   considering  his 


218  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

wife's  slight  leucorrhoea  a  cause,  though  this  might  have 
been  the  only  cause  or  a  contributory  one.  The  leu- 
corrhceal  discharge  would  more  readily  start  up  trou- 
ble in  the  young  man  since  his  constant  desire  and  the 
constant  engorgement  of  all  the  structures  about  the 
urethra  had  rendered  the  urethra  inflamed  and  sensi- 
tive to  any  outside  influences. 

The  explanation  of  a  leucorrhoeal  discharge  following 
long-repressed  desire,  is  very  similar  to  that  in  the  male. 
Desire  results  in  engorgement  of  the  vaginal  mucous 
membrane  and  the  surrounding  tissues,  and  of  the 
uterus,  tubes,  and  ovaries.  More  or  less  venous  stasis 
and  inflammation  follow  the  prolonged  engorgement, 
and  finally  serum  escapes  from  the  capillaries  in  the 
mucous  membrane,  and  sooner  or  later  this  may  be- 
come purulent.  Many  little  troubles,  unknown  to  peo- 
ple in  general,  and  often  passed  over  by  physicians, 
can  be  explained  as  one  of  the  above  conditions.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  serious  troubles  and  mis  judgments 
often  have  come  upon  the  perfectly  innocent  because 
some  of  these  things  were  not  better  understood. 

A    CASE,    OF    MANIC-DEPRESSIVE    INSANITY 

Our  societies  for  mental  hygiene  are  becoming  nu- 
merous and  enthusiastic  in  their  work  which,  so  far, 
is  largely  that  of  organization  or  general  discussion. 
Psychiatric  clinics  in  this  state  are  beginning  to  stim- 
ulate thought  and  to  provide  means  for  the  prevention 
of  mental  disease.  I  find  nothing,  or  next  to  nothing, 
said  about  sex  education  as  a  preventive  of  neurosis 
or  psychosis.  The  old  idea  that  masturbation  was  the 
cause  of  insanity,  of  course,  has  been  entirely  exploded, 
long  since,  but  the  old  worries  about  this  and  other 
sex  deviations  are  factors  nearly  as  potent  as  formerly 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  219 

in  the  causation  of  neurotic  and  mental  troubles.  I 
cannot  believe  that  physicians  in  general  realize  how 
numerous  are  the  cases  which  suffer  from  such  disturb- 
ance, or  more  active  measures  would  be  taken  to  combat 
it,  however  unpleasant  the  subject  might  be  for  them. 
Neurologists  and  psychiatrists  will  find  no  field  more 
in  need  of  active  endeavor  or  more  likely  to  yield  sur- 
prisingly beneficial  results  than  that  of  adjusting  the 
sex  psychology  of  those  patients  who  are  entirely  sane 
or  who  have  lucid  intervals.  The  following  case  of 
mental  trouble  illustrates  a  method  of  treatment  which 
frequently  has  proved  most  satisfactory  for  me,  and 
most  salutary  for  the  patient. 

The  patient,  Mr.   A ,  was   a  liberally  educated 

man  of  much  ability.  His  first  two  business  ventures 
were  not  very  successful,  and  he  had,  early  in  life,  an 
attack  of  manic-depressive  insanity,  from  which  he 
recovered  after  several  months'  residence  in  a  most 
exclusive  institution,  furnished  with  all  modern  equip- 
ment and  directed  by  a  staff  possessed  of  the  highest 
scientific  ability.  At  thirty,  some  three  years  after 
this  recovery,  he  married,  and  they  had  several  chil- 
dren in  the  next  few  years.  He  had  a  good  position, 
worked  hard,  and  had  no  bad  habits.  Nevertheless, 
when  about  forty  he  had  another  attack,  more  severe 
than  the  first,  and  recovered  after  a  longer  residence  at 
the  above  institution.  Four  years  after  this  second 
recovery,  during  a  time  of  some  business  strain,  he 
heard  a  talk  for  men,  by  an  evangelist,  which  appeared 
to  precipitate  the  third  and  most  severe  attack  of  all. 

My  experience  with  him  began  a  few  weeks  after  the 
initiation  of  this  attack.  Briefly,  his  symptoms  were: 
very  strong  ideas  of  unworthiness ;  he  expected  to  be 
killed  and  thought  he  deserved  to  be,  but  was  very  sorry 


220  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

for  his  wife  and  children,  who  were  to  be  included  in 
the  slaughter;  he  cried  much,  refused  to  eat,  slept  lit- 
tle; his  orientation  was  poor;  retardation  was  marked; 
and  he  was  very  resistive.  His  people  considered  his 
condition  far  worse  than  during  his  former  attacks,  and 
to  me  the  case  seemed  discouraging. 

Ordinarily,  as  I  was  then  situated,  being  in  the  coun- 
try, with  no  one  in  the  family  besides  my  wife,  a  patient, 
and  a  hired  man,  I  should  not  have  taken  him ;  but  inter- 
est in  him  and  his  family  induced  me  to  do  so.  In  five 
weeks  he  was  perfectly  well,  in  seven  weeks  he  went 
home,  and  though  this  was  nearly  ten  years  ago,  he 
never  has  been  absent  from  business  nor  in  any  way  in- 
disposed during  that  period.  He  is,  as  I  told  him  when 
he  left,  less  likely  to  have  any  further  mental  trouble 
than  the  ordinary  healthy  man  in  any  community. 

I  shall  give  a  condensed  account  of  my  treatment  of 
this  case,  beginning  with  the  ordinary  physical  measures 
which  were  taken.  At  first  I  dared  not  leave  him  alone, 
and  took  him  everywhere  with  me,  even  sleeping  in  the 
same  bed  with  him  for  a  time.  Two  of'  us,  by  much 
persuasion,  and  by  practically  carrying  him,  finally 
could  seat  him  at  the  table,  where  he  rarely  would  eat 
anything  unless  his  hands  were  held  and  the  food  put 
into  his  mouth.  He  worked  daily  with  me  in  the  hay- 
field,  digging  stone  or  peeling  bark.  When  engaged  in 
the  latter  occupation,  we  carried  our  dinners.  His  was 
a  quart  bottle  of  milk  or  coffee,  with  eggs  in  it,  which 
he  took,  after  some  persuasion,  one  holding  him  on  either 
side ;  while  I,  by  means  of  a  trick  used  in  feeding  refrac- 
tory children,  got  him  to  swallow  the  liquid.  Soon 
mild  persuasion  was  sufficient  to  induce  him  to  eat,  and 
within  two  weeks,  though  depressed,  he  was  partially 
sane.     At  no  time  did  the  treatment  involve  medicine, 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  221 

apparatus,  calisthenics,  nor  a  staff  of  trained  psycholo- 
gists ;  yet  he  recovered  in  much  less  time  from  an  attack 
more  severe  than  either  of  the  former  ones.  With  this 
simple  treatment  and  nothing  more,  such  patients  some- 
times get  well  in  three  months,  but  frequently  relapse, 
and  many  do  not  get  well  at  all. 

I  come  now  to  the  important  part  of  the  treatment. 
At  first  I  knew  nothing  about  his  life  or  domestic  rela- 
tions, but  his  constant  talk  of  unworthiness  and  fear 
of  impending  punishment  for  himself  and  his  wife  re- 
minded me  of  a  condition  frequent  in  neurotics,  and  not 
unusual  in  people  who  consider  themselves  well.  I  knew 
there  was  some  domestic  trouble  or  tragedy ;  and,  as 
tactfully  as  I  could,  I  talked  with  him  of  his  wife  and 
family,  and  of  my  own.  I  spoke  of  the  sex  worries  and 
errors  of  young  people  and  of  the  ignorance  of  the 
newly  married.  Soon  he  began  to  talk  and  ask  ques- 
tions, and  later  to  tell  his  experience,  whereupon  I  sub- 
stituted hope  in  place  of  his  nightmare,  and  he  soon 
called  for  his  wife  and  his  pipe,  and  his  recovery  was 
uneventful. 

He  never  had  masturbated  more  than  half  a  dozen 
times,  having  been  terribly  frightened  about  this  prac- 
tice when  a  small  boy,  but,  with  some  other  boys,  he  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  playing  with  the  genitals  of  dogs 
in  his  home  neighborhood.  Later,  when  sixteen  or 
seventeen,  he  was  much  troubled  at  liaving  done  a  thing 
so  disgraceful.  He  had  strong  sex  impulses,  and  since 
he  had  this  exaggerated  fear  of  masturbation,  he  went 
with  public  women  occasionally,  when  the  impulse  was 
irresistible,  up  to  the  time  of  his  marriage.  After  mar- 
riage he  suflPered  much  from  remorse  at  his  past  life 
and  never  transgressed,  except  on  one  occasion,  when, 
away    from   home    and   lonely,   he    chanced   to   meet   a 


222  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

former  partner,  now  a  widow  and  also  lonely.  Nothing 
immoral  was  premeditated  by  either,  and  after  two  or 
three  such  occurrences,  nothing  further  of  the  kind 
ever  happened ;  but  both  had  sincere  and  insistent  regret 
for  their  conduct. 

It  was  natural,  with  these  things  on  his  mind,  that 
the  talk  of  the  evangelist  concerning  masturbation  and 
immorality  should  precipitate  the  final  attack.  His 
mental  disturbances  since  marriage  had  been  contrib- 
uted to,  not  only  by  his  own  remorse  and  sense  of  unfit- 
ness, but  by  a  condition  in  his  wife  which  is  extremely 
common  and  always  unnecessary.  She  had  practiced 
auto-erotism  somewhat  as  a  girl,  and  later,  without 
other  instruction,  had  been  thoroughly  frightened  about 
it.  As  is  the  rule,  she  henceforth  had  considered  every- 
thing pertaining  to  sex  low  and  degrading.  As  a  wife, 
she  had  made  strenuous  effort  at  first  to  prevent  erotic 
emotion  and  later,  when  she  learned  that  it  was  ab- 
normal for  a  wife  not  to  participate,  she  was  without 
knowledge  which  would  enable  her  to  do  so.  The  ab- 
sence of  orgasm  and  a  desire  to  abstain  on  the  part  of 
his  wife,  led  him  to  seek  relations  infrequently,  and 
resulted,  as  usual,  in  physical  and  nervous  disturbance. 

When  I  finally  had  opportunity  to  talk  with  her,  I 
learned  the  above  story  and  found  that  she  had  guessed 
his  single  infidelity,  and  that,  though  she  still  loved  him, 
she  was  very  indignant,  I  represented  the  case  in  its 
true  light,  and  she  forgave  him.  I  freed  her  mind  of 
worry  and  gave  her  some  necessary  instruction.  I  con- 
vinced him  that  his  childhood  experience  with  dogs  had 
made  no  lasting  impress  on  his  character,  that  mastur- 
bation was  nothing  to  be  disturbed  about,  that  his 
lapses  in  the  way  of  promiscuity,  since  resulting  from 
his  unreasoning  fear  of  masturbation,  were  less  damag- 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  223 

ing  to  his  character  than  they  otherwise  would  have 
been.  Somehow,  I  got  them  both  to  think  less  of  the 
past,  more  of  the  future,  and  everything  of  each  other. 
Today  I  cannot  think  of  a  more  ideal  home.  It  is  now 
easy  to  see  why  I  am  confident  that  he  will  have  no 
further  trouble. 

If  the  trained  psychologists  who  twice  had  this  man 
in  their  care  had  investigated  his  mind,  as  they  pre- 
sumably did  his  reflexes,  I  should  have  been  unable  to 
present  this  case.  Nevertheless,  I  should  not  have  suf- 
fered for  want  of  material.  I  have  had  a  case  since 
then  very  similar  in  all  its  details,  except  that  the  one 
I  have  described  had  the  delusion  that  I  was  going  to 
take  him  and  his  wife  and  children  up  to  the  top  of  a 
hill  and  kill  them  all.  The  other  believed  that  I  was 
going  to  kill  him  only,  but  that  his  wife  and  unborn 
child  were  to  be  burned.  I  have  explored  the  minds 
of  several  women  who  had  fixed  delusions,  whose  trouble 
seemed  to  have  originated  in  sex  worries  and  disturb- 
ances similar  to  those  of  the  wife  of  the  patient  whose 
history  is  given.  Their  recovery  was  rapid  and  perma- 
nent. I  say  permanent  because  the  cases  I  have  in 
mind  have  remained  well  over  twelve  years.  In  any 
case  similar  to  these,  where  a  similar  exploration  of 
the  psyche  has  been  possible,  and  similar  advice  has 
been  given,  I  never  have  known  a  relapse. 

Married  couples  with  primal  worries,  early  poor  ad- 
justment, and  later  strained  relations,  and  still  later 
neuroses  or  psychoses,  are  very  numerous.  Inside  a 
week,  people  whose  troubles  I  have  tried  to  smooth  out 
and  who,  during  the  process,  had  learned  to  make  a 
diagnosis,  have  told  me  of  six  such  who,  though  not  yet 
ready  for  sanitarium  or  asylum,  are  yet  sure  candidates 
if  let  alone.     One  of  these  can  be  reached  and  undoubt- 


2^4  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

ed\y  the  trouble  prevented,  but  in  our  present  state  of 
diffidence,  it  is  impossible  to  do  anything  for  the  others. 
To  determine  how  to  reach  couples  who  are  well  mated 
physically  and  mentally,  but  who  are  drifting  apart 
through  ignorance  of  the  vital  facts  of  life,  and  certain 
—  if  left  alone  —  to  become  neurotic  or  psychotic,  is 
a  problem  well  worth  solving.  Some  do  not  know  the 
cause  of  their  troubles  ;  others,  who  do,  are  afraid  to  ask 
advice;  and  no  outsider  has  the  authority  to  interfere. 

SEX    AND    THE    WAR 

I  have  written  in  another  place  somewhat  concerning 
the  endless  sex  problems  which  are  ever  with  us,  and 
their  relation  to  the  present  unparalleled  conditions  of 
world  strife.  The  subject  has  so  great  practical  im- 
portance that  perhaps  I  may  be  pardoned  some  repeti- 
tion in  a  short  statement  of  some  of  these  matters  as 
they  appear  to  one  who  has  studied  long  and  thought 
somewhat  on  problems  of  our  racial  and  national  wel- 
fare. The  occasion  is  too  hurried  to  say  anything  very 
elaborate,  and  I  shall  confine  myself  to  some  points 
which  seem  to  me  of  great  present  import.  Despite  the 
statements  of  theorists  who  see  life  only  from  an  ob- 
servatory through  an  equatorial,  or  from  the  smug  com- 
fort of  an  easy-chaired  study,  the  problem  of  continence 
and  morality  for  the  men  in  the  army  and  the  women 
at  home,  is  not  to  be  ignored.  I  know  of  a  recent  case 
where  a  perfectly  normal,  moral  man,  whose  life  was 
correct  in  every  respect,  was  away  from  his  home  less 
than  a  week,  occupied  every  moment  of  the  day  at  hard 
physical  labor.  During  this  time  he  had  no  thought 
of  sex  and  no  sex  disturbance.  Yet,  when  he  finally 
took  the  train  for  home,  he  suddenly  became  conscious 
that  sex  was  not  dead,  but  had  been  sleeping.     He  suf- 


INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  225 

fered  a  great  deal  in  the  few  hours  on  the  train  and 
during  a  few  hours  of  quixotic  abstinence  after  his 
arrival  home.  The  well-known  frequent  occurrence  of 
such  a  condition  in  men  and  women  who  are  of  the  best 
repute,  after  a  period  of  separation,  is  well  illustrated 
in  this  instance.  You  all  very  well  know  that  such 
experiences  are  now  being,  and  going  to  be,  duplicated 
thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  times  during 
this  period  of  war,  devastation,  sorrow,  and  separation. 
Short  absences  need  give  no  concern  to  men  and  women 
of  fixed  purposes.  Some  are  so  constituted  that  long 
absences  give  little  trouble,  and  nature  adjusts  itself 
to  conditions ;  but,  not  all  the  theorizing  in  the  world  by 
those  well  adjusted  or  impotent,  will  solve  this  problem 
for  many  married  lovers  who  have  been  a  short  or  a 
long  time  together,  nor  for  many  of  the  single  people 
who  are  young  and  strong  and  virile. 

My  position  is  well  known  as  unequivocally  and  unal- 
terably opposed  to  the  slightest  deviation  from  our  wise 
monogamic  standards.  Promiscuity  is  no  solution,  or 
a  race  destroying  solution  of  this  problem.  Free  love 
is  no  better  than  promiscuity,  and  the  worst  of  all  de- 
lusions. What  then  is  the  remedy?  After  utilizing  all 
forms  of  work,  all  sorts  of  distractions,  all  approved 
regimen,  and  all  legitimate  sublimation  in  every  form,  the 
problem  is  still  left  for  our  American  women  at  home, 
and  their  husbands  and  lovers  at  the  front.  What  is 
the  remedy  when  our  robust  and  sturdy  men,  and 
healthy  American  women  after  long  separations  become 
unbearably  oppressed  by  desires  for  that  natural  sex 
expression  which  has  been  an  integral  part  of  their 
lives  together?  We  are  doing  all  we  can  to  protect 
those  whose  wills  are  weak,  and  those  who  wilfully  trans- 
gress our  sexual  standards  of  morality ;  but  many  aS' 


226  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

sume  that  the  men  and  women  of  fixed  standards  of 
purity,  and  of  high  religious  aspirations,  and  of  strong 
character,  have  no  trouble  worth  mentioning,  and  that 
this  trouble  can  be  safely  ignored.  Pardon  me,  but  I 
know  better !  I  have  learned  from  talks  with  many  suf- 
ferers from  treatment  of  many  conditions  resulting 
from  such  sufferings,  from  personal  experiences,  and 
from  the  communicated  experiences  of  numerous  men 
and  women  whose  lives  and  characters  I  know,  and  in 
whose  statements  I  have  unbounded  confidence.  Really 
there  is  but  one  legitimate  remedy  after  the  hackneyed 
partial  remedies  already  named  fail,  and  they  often  fail. 
Those  people  who  have  enough  of  the  so-called  animal- 
ism, primal  instinct,  or  human-ness,  to  be  objects  of 
pity  or  disgust  to  the  ultra-idealist,  but  who  are,  in 
reality,  good,  strong,  moral,  trustworthy  men  and 
women,  have  this  problem  frequently  looming  large  dur- 
ing these  days. 

I  unhesitatingly  say  that  sufficient  auto-erotism  for 
moderate  comfort  and  good  health  is  the  only  remedy. 
But,  the  stigma  attached  to  any  such  thing  is  so  deep- 
seated  and  universal,  the  quacks,  charlatans  and  well- 
meaning  have  instilled  such  fears  of  moral  and  physical 
injury  from  this,  that  people  are  likely  to  consider  this 
remedy  worse  than  the  disease.  Nevertheless,  it  is 
plainly  the  only  recourse  consistent  with  morality  and 
health,  after  the  remedies  alluded  to  have  proved  un- 
availing, and  they  certainly  are  often  unavailing.  I 
do  not  speak  of  neurotics,  who  have  come  to  be  maligned 
by  some  people  who  say  that  these  unfortunates  are 
deficient  in  will  power,  and  hence,  cannot  resist  the  de- 
mands of  sex.  The  opposite  is  usually  true  of  them, 
and  neurotics  usually  exhibit  a  weakness  of  will  power 
as  the  result  of  a  re-action  from  a  long  and  strenuous 


/INCIDENTAL  OBSERVATIONS  227 

fight  against  sex,  which  has  at  length  temporarily 
broken  down  their  powers  of  resistance.  I  am  speak- 
ing of  our  strongest  and  best,  the  most  manly  and  the 
most  womanly,  who  will  many  of  them  certainly  become 
neurotic  if  they  attempt  to  solve  this  problem  as  the 
present  neurotics  have  done,  along  the  same  lines,  and 
according  to  the  views  of  those  uncompromising  ideal- 
ists who  hold  the  transcendental,  the  intangible,  and 
the  supersensuous  all  worthy ;  and  the  body,  sense,  and 
instinct,  always  and  ever  unworthy,  and  negligible  in  all 
moral  and  religious  considerations.  If  some  of  the 
truths  which  I  have  presented  are  germain,  they  must 
be  sane  and  safe;  at  any  rate,  until  some  better  solu- 
tion is  forthcoming,  they  are  saner  and  safer  than  an 
old  regime  which  has  brought  us  ever  increasing  neu- 
roses, venereal  perils,  prostitution,  divorce,  and  infi- 
delity. 


XII 

AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY 

My  rude  attempts  at  philosophy  may  be  thought  a 
joke,  and  perhaps,  in  a  wa}^  they  are.  Certainly  if 
I  had  the  mental  attributes  of  one  whose  physical  dup- 
licate, to  some  extent,  I  surely  am,  I  should  allow  a 
vein  of  humor  to  trickle  through  the  chinks  in  my  logic, 
if,  peradventure,  I  were  ever  logical ;  for  certainly 
there  is  a  humorous  side  to  this  most  pathetic  of  all 
tragedies,  which  is  subsumed  under  the  physico-ethico- 
religio-sex-complex.  But  my  onlj'  title  to  a  place  in 
the  galax}'  of  American  humorists  whose  alpha  star  was 
that  Mark  Twain,  whose  joking  nonsense  was  so  sound 
a  common  sense  that  it  kept  sweet  the  waters  of  many 
a  Mara  for  us  modern  humans,  whose  pathetic  humor 
brought  tears  in  the  swift  wake  of  the  laughter,  whose 
philosophy  has,  perhaps,  more  than  any  other,  made 
our  sometimes  sordid  Americanism  redolent  of  a  hu- 
manism which  is  sure  to  rise  to  the  ascendent  after  this 
last  war  for  freedom,  whose  Tom  Sawyer  and  Huckle- 
berry Finn  started  many  a  child,  as  they  are  today 
starting  my  youngest,  to  face  all  seriousness  and  trouble 
of  life  with  chuckles  of  mirth  and  an  ineffaceable  human- 
ism, my  onl}'  claim,  I  say,  to  such  celebrity  is  that  a 
man  "  in  his  cups  "  has  frequently  solemnly  asserted 
(the  statement  of  many  sober  men  to  the  same  effect 
was  taken  lightly,  but  in  vino  Veritas)  that  I  was  Mark, 
himself,  until   in   summer,   in  white   raiment,   I   almost 

think  that  I  am,  in  truth,  his  shade.     But  alas,  this  is 

228 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  229 

\nnter,  and  it  is  only  in  summer  that  I  suffer  these 
sweet  illusions  of  mistaken  identity.  Now  the  chill 
Borean  blasts  force  a  hirsute  appendage,  which  tem- 
porarily transmogrifies  me  into  another  delightful  cate- 
gory of  the  elect,  and  my  sublimest  aspirations  to  state- 
craft and  literature  are  transiently  fulfilled  in  the  fleet- 
ing felicity  of  frequent  recognition  as  that  other  ster- 
ling contemporary,  whom  we  in  Massachusetts  some- 
times quarrel  with,  but  ultimately  name  with  pride  as 
our  Edmunds,  our  Roosevelt,  our  Bancroft,  compositely 
apotheosized  in  one  effulgent,  transcendent  personality, 
Henry  Cabot  Lodge.  Had  I,  in  some  small  measure,  the 
mental  attributes  of  these  two  typical  Americans,  whose 
physical  or  physiognomical  characteristics  I  have  so 
often  innocenth',  but  with  proud  self-gratulation,  per- 
sonified, then  would  I  write  3'ou  a  philosophy  of  sex  that 
should  be  at  once  pleasing,  inspiring,  exact,  and  schol- 
arly. But  since  I  have  not,  I  have  already  gotten  my- 
self into  deep  water,  becoming,  by  my  aspirations  to 
be  a  cross  between  these  two,  a  hybrid,  and  like  some 
h3'brids,  sterile.  But  this  humiliating  reflection  I  have, 
by  a  fairly  numerous  progeny,  alreadj^  disproved  on 
the  physical  side,  and  I  would  the  mental  stigma,  by 
more  than  insouciant  endeavor,  seek  to  escape.  So 
then,  I  must  follow  the  old  adage  that  every  tub  shall 
stand  on  its  own  bottom,  and  if  I  see  humor  in  the  great- 
est tragedy  of  the  ages,  try  to  emancipate  it  for  your 
enjoyment  from  the  semi-obscurity  of  my  tortuous 
phraseology,  and  if  I  see  utilitarian  abstractions, 
seek  by  Gargantuan  efforts  to  make  my  Lilliputian  ac- 
tivities equal  to  the  task  of  bringing  forth  concrete, 
understandable  results,  intelligible  to  an  understanding 
public. 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  an  attempted  recon- 


230  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

ciliation  between  the  partially  plain  and  the  sufficiently 
obvious.     Bringing   even   a   superficial   cosmos    out    of 
an  irrefragible  chaos  of  sex  is  no  light  task.     One  would 
judge  that  philosophy,  from  its  definition  as  a  unifica- 
tion of  all  branches  of  knowledge,  and  from  its  being  the 
goal  of  the  wise  men  of  the  past,  would  constantly  in- 
crease, at  least  by  infinitesimal  accretions,  in  useful- 
ness and  availability ;  but  late  years  it  is  becoming,  on 
the  one  hand,  a  mere  review  of  Plato,  Aristotle,  Kant, 
et  al.,  a  rattling  of  the  dry  bones  of  antiquity,  or,  on 
the  other,  a  maudlin  attempt  to  caricature  some  of  our 
most   necessary   moral   conventions    and   long  securely 
founded  institutions.     A  semi-jocular,  pessimistic  mis- 
anthropy, which  insistently  runs  counter  to  the  things 
which  are,  and  which  are,  by  right  and  necessity,  an 
effort  to   cast  adrift   from  our  whole   code  of  morals 
because  of  some  slight  inconveniences  or  correctable  er- 
rors, by  would-be  reformers,  more  properly  called  de- 
stroyers, whose  cerebral  limitations  are  such  that  the 
superlative  of  their  keenest  perceptions  goes  no  farther 
than  to  scent  a  trouble  which  they  are  incompetent  to 
diagnosticate,  but  which,  could  they  do  so,  they  would 
still  be  incompetent  to  alleviate,  brilliant,  though  dema- 
gogic critics  of  present-day  institutions,  like  Shaw  and, 
to  some  extent,  Ibsen  and  Maeterlinck,  opens  our  sores 
but  provides  no  balm.     Their  philosophy,  if  it  may  be 
dignified  by  such  a  term,  is  pessimistic,  destructive,  ulti- 
mately worthless.     Destructive  criticism  is  poor  philos- 
ophy.    Again,  the  problem  novel  unsettles  us  much  as 
to  existing  standards,  shows  us  many  errors  we  have 
fallen  into,  but  offers  no  remedy.     Enough  of  this  de- 
structive philosophy  to  set  us  thinking  may  be  a  good 
thing,  but  that  which  would  overturn  our  time-honored 
sex  conventions  in  their  entiretly  is  worse  than  clinging 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  231 

to  them  in  their  original  coercive  and  pre-scientific 
form.  A  sane  public  does  not  destroy  the  substantial 
and  time-honored  structure  on  Beacon  Hill,  but  re- 
pairs the  old  and  stable  and  adds  new  portions  as 
needed.  Such  sanity  in  public  affairs  is  metaphorical 
of  the  manner  in  which  I  shall,  if  I  am  able,  philoso- 
phize concerning  sex. 

With  this  unmethodological  propaedeutic,  let  us 
glance  for  a  few  moments  at  what  has  been  the  chief 
objective  of  life  in  all  the  ages.  The  unicellular  amoeba 
avoids  foreign  and  noxious  substances  and  eagerly  ab- 
sorbs those  which  give  pleasure  and  sustenance.  The 
heliotropic  sunflower  gets  pleasure  and  profit  from  the 
sun's  rays.  The  well-fed  cat  or  dog,  when  permitted, 
curls  up  in  comfort  and  indolence  by  the  fire.  All  ani- 
mals flee  their  natural  enemies  and  seek  the  sunny  slopes 
when  the  nutritive  and  sex  instincts  become  dormant  or 
satisfied.  Man,  at  the  head  of  the  scale,  as  we  know  it, 
is  no  exception,  and  ever  has  sought  happiness  as  the 
chief  desideratum.  This  near  caught  butterfly,  this 
fleeting  phantom,  this  chimera,  often  has  been  thought 
to  be  an  illegitimate  object  of  man's  ambition,  an  un- 
worthy goal.  But  is  it?  All  life  instinctively  and 
necessarily  avoids  the  enemies  of  life.  Conversely,  all 
life,  to  continue  and  develop,  must  seek  and  be  in  fel- 
lowship with  what  conserves  life,  and  conduces  to  per- 
petuity. In  what,  for  practical  purposes,  is  a  dualism 
of  mind  and  body,  the  mind  must  be  unfettered  and 
free  from  alarms,  and  the  body  unhampered  by  disease 
and  discomfort  if  progress  is  to  be  fostered  and  retro- 
gression prevented. 

Happiness,  then,  which  has  been  the  end  of  all  true 
philosophy,  since  a  necessary,  is  a  legitimate  and  laud- 
able end.     Plato  sought  happiness  in  virtue  or  knowl- 


232  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

edge,  or  in  the  transcendence  of  the  soul.  Christianity, 
with  a  personal  Deity  and  an  individual  immortality, 
sought  happiness  in  the  future  glories  of  an  intellectual 
and  moral  Paradise.  Mohammedanism  pictured  a 
ph^^sical  Paradise  with  happiness  of  a  sensual  order 
only ;  while  Buddhism,  between  the  two,  saw  ultimate 
happiness  in  a  Nirvana  which  absorbed  each  individual 
atom  again  into  the  all  from  which  each  came.  Aris- 
totle sought  happiness  in  a  well-ordered  life  in  accord 
with  Nature's  laws  and  in  intellectual  enjoyment,  while 
not  denying  future  beatitudes.  The  attitude  of  the 
Stoics,  whose  position  of  lofty  disdain  for  all  human 
pain  and  pleasure,  arose  from  observing  the  masses  of 
humanit}'  seeking  happiness  in  the  other  extreme  of  low 
sensuality,  such  as  afterward  became  the  ideal  of  the 
later  followers  of  Epicurus,  a  teacher  whose  own  life 
and  teachings  and  that  of  his  immediate  followers 
pointed  the  way  to  happiness  much  as  Aristotle  did  in 
a  well-ordered  life  in  conformity  with  Nature's  laws. 
But  the  Stoics  even,  though  disparaging  the  happiness 
which  was  commonly  sought,  found  in  their  austerity, 
superiority  and  indifference  an  ascetic  sort  of  happiness 
and  satisfaction. 

Just  as  Cynicism  and  Stoicism  arose  from  the  reac- 
tion against  early  Greek  licentiousness,  so  the  mild  pro- 
tests of  Epicurus  himself  and  the  ultimate  debauchery 
of  his  followers  rose  as  a  protest  against  a  Diogenes 
and  Zeno  who  ignored,  repressed,  or  disdained  all  human 
pleasures.  The  Paradisical  antitheses  above  shown 
might  be  likened  to  those  of  human  society  and  are  de- 
veloped from  identical  conditions.  The  Stoic  and 
Cj-nic  would  have  on  earth,  as  would  Plato,  what  the 
Christian  looked  forward  to  in  a  Heaven  deprived  of 
sense.     The   later   Epicureans   pursued  here  what  the 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  233 

Mohammedan  coveted  for  his  Paradise,  sense  and  sense 
only.  Aristotle  and  Epicurus  himself  represented  a 
mean  or  middle  ground  in  human  society  which  is  dup- 
licated to  some  extent  in  the  Buddhist's  Nirvana.  Such 
antitheses  run  all  through  all  religions,  all  philosophy 
and  all  life.  Even  today  the  looseness  of  feminine  man- 
ners and  the  scanty,  transparent  feminine  apparel  are 
effectual  protests  against  a  former  too  severe  puritan- 
ism  and  prudishness.  Sex  propagandism  of  every  sort 
and  description,  good,  bad  and  indifferent  (including 
my  own,  which  endeavors  to  propose  an  Aristotelian 
mean)  are  but  the  reaction  against  former  ignorance 
and  intolerance  of  humanity's  rights  and  happiness,  an 
attempt  to  transcend  natural  law  in  the  lives  of  those 
of  nature  born.  Aristippus  and  the  early  Hedonists 
sought  happiness  in  intellectual  pursuits,  tempered  with 
what  was  legitimately  sensuous,  while  the  later  Epicu- 
reans abandoned  themselves  to  the  ruthless  and  immedi- 
ately sensuous.  Nietzsche's  superman  would  be  happy 
only  when  might  was  right  and  ruthless  egoism  trampled 
and  made  subservient  all  lesser  creatures.  How  evil 
and  reactionar}'^,  how  absolute  a  return  to  the  Hun  in 
his  original  barbarity  this  philosophy  is,  is  shown  by  a 
Prussian  militarism  which  has  staked  its  all  on  the  per- 
petuation of  such  doctrines.  The  antithesis  of  this  is 
shown  on  the  one  hand  in  the  transcendentalism  of 
Emerson,  which  seeks  happiness  in  lofty  ideas  wliich  go 
beyond  the  stars,  and  on  the  other  hand  in  the  human- 
ism of  our  greatest  commoner,  Lincoln,  who  rightl}'  saw 
happiness,  won  through  sacrifice,  in  equality  and  broth- 
erhood. When  the  world  has  freed  itself  from  the  mod- 
ern Python  of  aristocratic  militancy  and  the  principles 
of  Lincoln  and  Washington  prevail,  we  shall  be  just  at 
the  dawn  of  a  new  and  progressive  era,  when  not  only 


234  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

freedom  in  politics  and  freedom  in  the  externals  of 
religion  shall  be  universal ;  but  freedom  from  ancient 
dogma  and  hide-bound  epistemological  formula  must 
be  added  to  freedom  in  other  things.  The  truths  of  life 
and  nature  which  are  being  drawn  from  the  universe  by 
the  hand  of  science  will  be  available  for  the  universal 
benefit  of  mankind. 

Our  incipient  philosophy  does  not  contemplate  a  com- 
plete return  to  the  primitive,  nor  an  exclusive  devotion 
to  transcendence.  It  is  neither  exclusive  psychic  ere- 
thism nor  Epicurean  sensuousness,  but  the  universal 
adaptation  of  assured  knowledge  to  the  needs  of  all 
men,  a  pragmatic  selection  of  the  best  of  everything  to 
the  end  of  universal  brotherhood  and  universal  progress 
which  we  should  consider,  with  Spencer,  synonymous 
with  universal  happiness.  Today  more  than  ever  be- 
fore men  of  all  abilities  and  in  all  branches  of  science, 
art  and  humanism  are  unconsciously  beginning  to  co- 
operate toward  this  nearest  divine  human  goal.  We 
cheerfully  attempt  to  show  how  our  infinitesimal  efforts 
toward  sex  knowledge  and  rehabilitation  contribute,  if 
ever  so  slightly,  to  this  summum  bonum.  We  have 
often  shown  how  the  earliest  extreme  licentiousness 
caused  the  far  swing  of  the  pendulum  to  uncompromis- 
ing asceticism  and  idealism,  which  in  turn  compelled  the 
later  extreme  of  modem,  educated  materialism,  better 
than  ancient  licentiousness,  to  be  sure,  but  still  un- 
worthy of  humanity.  We  are  now  swinging  back  from 
this  neo-Epicureanism  toward  a  neo-idealism.  Modern 
materialism  went  too  far  toward  the  old,  exclusive 
recognition  of  the  physical  side  of  man,  which  was  its 
prototype.  It  need  never  go  so  far  again,  but  the  only 
way  to  prevent  it  is  by  encouraging  a  pragmatism 
which  shall  take  the  best  from  idealism  instead  of  adopt- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  235 

ing  it  in  its  prescientific  entirety.  Such  a  middle  course 
is  necessary  as  shall  absorb  all  knowledge,  and  discard 
all  dogma  and  superstition,  a  course  which  encourages 
all  legitimate  ideality,  one  which  is  already  beginning 
to  show  in  religious  tolerance,  democratic  institutions 
and  ideas  of  universal  brotherhood.  When  the  princi- 
ples of  this  philosophy  are  applied  to  sex,  our  indis- 
pensable attribute  for  social  life  and  perpetuation,  and 
sound  principles  of  right  sex  living  are  brought  out 
from  the  obscurity  which  fear,  shame,  and  dogma  hith- 
erto have  made  necessary  for  all  knowledge  which  con- 
cerned sex,  we  may  expect  a  more  lasting  impetus  to  our 
progress  in  morality,  health  and  fellowship  than  we  have 
acquired  from  enlightenment  in  any  other  branch  of 
knowledge. 

I  hope  that  all  of  us  have,  based  on  the  revelations  of 
nature  and  our  intuitive  perceptions,  a  well-grounded 
belief  in  a  future  existence  of  a  higher  order.  I  hold 
that  such  a  belief  is  right,  not  only  because  it  is  an 
obligation,  but  because  it  is  of  highest  therapeutic  im- 
portance. But  since  most  of  us  have  long  ago  done 
away  with  the  idea  that  all  human  well-being  must  be 
ignored  or  that  earthly  suffering  must  be  courted  as  the 
surest  means  to  the  end  of  an  impeccable  immortality, 
we  both  logically  and  naturally  turn,  after  declaring 
allegiance  and  subscribing  to  the  precepts  of  the  un- 
knowable or  infinite,  to  work  out  our  salvation  in  the 
midst  of  the  knowable  and  finite.  It  ought  to  be  as 
plain  to  us  today  as  it  was  long  ago  to  its  author, 
that  our  most  profitable  line  of  investigation  is  in  the 
field  of  the  golden  rule.  The  trite  abridgment,  "  Live 
and  let  live,"  would  suggest  that  we  delve  in  nature's 
mysteries  and  unearth  all  that  is  Immediate  in  a  search 
for  means  to  better  our  own  condition  and  that  of  our 


236  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

neighbor.  The  innumerable  lines  of  human  study  and 
endeavor  and  our  readiness  in  emergencies  like  the  world 
war,  to  make  everything  subservient  to  ability  and 
efficiency,  indicate  that,  in  general,  we  see  our  duty 
plainl}^  No  great  field  of  legitimate  human  exploita- 
tion except  that  of  sex  is  still  practically  unfilled. 
This  has  been  avoided,  as  beneath  our  dignity,  or  be- 
yond our  power  or  right  to  understand.  Shame  and 
fear  have  resulted  from  early  dogma.  Secrecy,  pru- 
riency and  prudery  have  been  secondary  reactions. 
Nevertheless,  sex  ought  not  to  be  beneath  our  notice. 
Logically  a  function  which  is  at  the  very  foundation  of 
life  and  its  continuity,  on  which  directly  depend  home, 
family,  love,  comradeship,  and  more  remotely  religion, 
ethics,  art,  and  literature,  must  have  great  power  for 
good  or  evil,  and  is,  therefore,  worthy  of  deepest  con- 
sideration, but  passing  over  logic,  our  senses  inform 
us  that  the  sex  function,  properly  managed,  makes  for 
health,  happiness,  usefulness  and  longevity,  and  im- 
properly managed,  makes  for  disease,  crime,  debauch- 
ery, and  early  decline  or  death.  Why,  then,  do  we  hesi- 
tate and  procrastinate?  Why  are  we  self-conscious 
and  ashamed  ?  Why  do  we  feel  that  we  are  sacrilegious 
or  unclean  if  we  think  or  talk  about  sex.''  Science  must 
show  what  the  condition  is  and  how  it  came  about,  but 
philosophy  must  give  the  reason  why.  What  the  con- 
dition is  is  now  plain  enough  to  all,  but  it  is  worth  while 
once  more  to  show  how  prudery,  shame  and  fear  of  sex 
became  established.  From  the  most  primitive  times 
mankind  has  felt  the  need  of  a  system  or  being  superior 
to  and  beyond  itself.  Man  has  always  been  aware  of 
his  own  inadequacy.  First  he  turned  with  reverence 
to  the  terrifying  and  beneficent  manifestations  of  na- 
ture which  he  did  not   understand.     Then  he  revered 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  237 

and  worshipped  his  ancestry.  Also  in  early  times  the 
organs  of  generation,  which  were  recognized  as  the 
vital  forces  of  life,  were  worshipped.  Again,  Polythe- 
ism, or  personification  was  in  vogue.  Superstition, 
credulity,  mysticism,  always  have  been  the  means  by 
which  a  priesthood,  deriving  its  sustenance  from  the 
people,  enthused  the  people  and  kept  them  constant  in 
some  particular  belief.  When  the  new  dispensation  of 
Christianity  appeared,  with  the  highest  system  of 
morals,  and  its  doctrines  of  vicarious  sacrifice,  re- 
birth, the  fatherhood  of  God,  and  brotherhood  of 
man,  wherever  in  humanity  there  was  a  dawning 
Bense  of  justice,  loyalty,  and  purity,  was  there  adop- 
tion of  this  new  religion ;  and  since  it  was  so  se- 
curely founded,  it  always  has  been  and  probably  always 
will  be  the  embodiment  of  all  that  is  best.  But  man 
was  fallible,  and  many  abuses,  long  since  corrected, 
crept  into  early  Christianity.  Heresy  and  its  punish- 
ment, the  Inquisition,  flagellation,  witchcraft,  are 
among  the  exostoses  which  already  have  been  exorcised. 
Other  errors,  more  subtle  and,  therefore,  harder  to  cor- 
rect, were  less  readily  seen  and  are  slowly  being  cor- 
rected. It  takes  a  long  time  to  learn  that  anything  can 
be  too  right.  It  was  perfectly  clear  that  licentiousness 
was  a  tremendous  evil,  and  the  natural  inference,  of 
course,  would  be  that  absolute  asceticism,  since  diamet- 
rically opposite,  would  be  the  greatest  good.  It  took 
long  to  discover  that  the  one  extreme  was  as  bad  for 
humanity  as  the  other,  and  that  either  would  ulti- 
mately prove  entirely  destructive  to  this  object  of  all 
solicitude.  But  when  this  was  seen,  the  ascetic  doc- 
trines were  still  unchanged,  and  the  principles  of  self- 
sacrifice,  renunciation  and  aspiration,  involved  in  as- 
cetic ideals,  had  become  thoroughly  grounded.     They 


238  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

had  and  always  will  have  strong  advocacy  from  all 
right-thinking  people,  since  in  something  short  of  their 
extreme  application,  they  are  always  right  and  neces- 
sary. While  the  doctrines  of  the  extremists  were  still 
in  full  sway,  the  author  of  Onania,  Lallemand,  Tissot, 
Voltaire  and  others  rose  up  to  apply  these  principles  to 
specific  cases  and  to  herald  as  a  "  heinous  sin  "  the  deep- 
est vice  and  the  sure  precursor  of  utter  destruction, 
auto-erotism,  which  always  has  been  among  the  phe- 
nomena of  early  development,  and  a  constant  attendant 
of  sex  segregation  during  any  part  of  virile  life.  Nat- 
urally, then,  the  part  was  put  for  the  whole ;  and  the 
horrible  nightmare  that  all  humanity  then  suffered 
from,  since  all  humanity  had,  to  some  extent,  partici- 
pated in  the  so-called  crime  so  luridly  pictured  by  those 
misinformed  and  misguided  zealots,  was  extended  to  in- 
clude all  other  sex  manifestations.  Its  influence  is  seen 
today  when  most  women  enter  wedlock  suffering  from 
unreasoning  shame  and  fear  of  sex,  when  many  men 
enter  it  with  less  shame,  but  with  the  fear  that  normal 
indulgence  is  wrong  and  may  prove  injurious.  Every- 
where among  people  of  the  best  purposes  and  morals, 
the  married  and  unmarried  of  both  sexes,  there  is  a 
constant  warfare  between  natural  instinct  and  inherited 
or  early  implanted  belief.  Auto-erotism,  practiced 
more  or  less,  at  one  time  or  another,  by  practically 
every  normal  human  being,  is  almost  universally  be- 
lieved to  be  the  terribly  injurious,  criminal  and  vicious 
practice  which  these  old  writers  named  it.  At  some 
time  in  life  some  people  come  to  their  senses  and  see  for 
themselves,  or  are  told  by  one  of  the  few  who  have  sifted 
these  things  to  the  bottom,  that  they  are  not  necessarily 
culpable,  immoral  or  in  danger  of  early  demise  because 
they  have  yielded  in  the  sanest  way  possible  sometimes 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  239 

to  an  instinct  which  is  always  powerful  and  probably 
often  irresistible.  Some  have  learned  that  sex  is  a 
tremendous  power  for  good,  if  managed  rightly,  and 
that  moderate  marital  indulgence  is  beneficial  to  both 
parties  and  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of. 

Why  did  these  ideas  get  such  a  strong  hold,  and  why 
are  they  so  tenacious?  The  fundamental  reason  for 
this  is  of  great  comfort  to  all  optimists,  to  all  who 
believe  in  humanity. 

When  man's  instincts  to  right  conduct  originated, 
no  one  can  say.  Perhaps  it  was  a  reaction  in  primitive 
men,  inspired  by  fear  of  the  elements  about  them,  but 
certain  it  is  that,  however  low  present-day  humanity 
may  go,  there  is  s+ill  some  slight  aspiration  for  better 
things.  When  the  evils  of  license  became  apparent  and 
the  repression  which  morals  and  religion  demanded  be- 
came evident  as  the  right  course,  this  instinct  to  do 
right  and  be  right  influenced  man  until  finally  he  lost 
all  sense  of  proportion  in  going  to  the  extreme  of  mod- 
esty, self-accusation,  prudery,  and  repression,  and  he 
failed  to  take  into  account  the  natural,  legitimate,  and 
necessary  demands  of  the  body,  and  has  been  even  will- 
ing to  sacrifice  health,  comfort,  happiness,  for  an  idea 
of  abstract  right.  When  ethics  is  recognized  in  its 
true  light,  when  it  is  recognized  that  right  conduct  in 
the  sight  of  God  and  man  is  synonymous  with  most 
perfect  health,  greatest  efficiency  or  usefulness  and 
highest  happiness,  then  and  not  till  then  will  the  best 
people  be  willing  to  drop  dogma  and  unattainable  ideals 
and  seek  diligently,  from  whatever  source,  the  informa- 
tion necessary  to  a  unity  of  religion  and  life  with  morals 
and  happiness. 

To  show  how  tenaciously  we  cling  to  old  exploded 
ideas,  and  how  ludicrous  are  our  efforts  to  effect  the 


240  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

transition  from  these  fear-inspired  beliefs  to  a  present- 
day  common  sense,  I  must  quote  from  some  of  the  books 
which  are  advertised  as  regularly  as  quack  nostrums 
and  are  regularly  given  by  clergyman  to  parishioner, 
teacher  to  pupil,  and  parent  to  child.     In  short,  they 
are  to  be  found  in  every  moral  or  Christian  home.     I 
will  mention  no  names,  for  some  of  the  authors  are  my 
friends,  most  of  them  are  capable,  and  all  have  the  best 
intentions.     Further,  I  will  admit  that  I,  myself,  have 
passed  through  the  same  stages  that  some  of  them  are 
now  passing  through.     I  attribute  my  early  conversion 
to  my  present  view  to  the  fact  that  I  studied  normal 
human  life,  as  well  as  books.     All  the  books  of  the  past 
were    inspired    from    a    common    source,    and    all    the 
authors,  before  writing  on  these  subjects,  were  largely 
influenced   by    reading    some    of    these   books    or   were 
alarmed  by  parents  or  friends,  who  had  derived  their 
information  from  such  literature.      No  such  thing  as  an 
unbiased  opinion  could  be  given  by  a  student  of  litera- 
ture alone.     The  few  who  formerly  studied  human  char- 
acter itself  were  scattered,  their  efforts  timid  and  their 
work    largely    inaccessible.     So,    perhaps,    it    is    not 
strange   that  we  have  been   slow   in   throwing   off  the 
trammels  of  tradition  in  matters  of  sex.     Perhaps  my 
attempted  exposition  of  how  this  transition  has  taken 
place  is  more  psychological  than  philosophical,  but  it 
is  necessary  to  any  real  philosophy  of  sex. 

A  recent  book  that  has  been  through  four  or  more 
editions,  now  advertised  regularly  by  the  best  periodi- 
cals, says,  in  regard  to  masturbation,  or  auto-erotism, 
"  Viewing  the  world  over,  this  shameful  and  criminal 
act  is  the  most  frequent,  as  well  as  the  most  fatal  of  all 
vices.  ...  It  is  only  the  most  aggravated  cases  that 
are  brought  to  notice,  and  these  usually  are  hopeless 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  241 

and  incurable.  The  vast  majority  escape  detection, 
and  the  practice  in  such,  though  indulged  to  a  compara- 
tively moderate  extent,  does  not  the  less  seriously,  but 
only  the  less  completely,  impair  the  intellect  and  lay  the 
foundation  of  physical,  mental,  and  moral  maladies, 
the  causes  of  which  usually  are  as  unsuspected  as  they 
are  consequently  persistent  in  their  operation.  .  .  . 
Perhaps  the  most  constant  and  invariable,  as  well  as 
earliest  signs  of  the  masturbator  are  the  downcast 
averted  glance  and  the  disposition  to  solitude.  Promi- 
nent characteristics  are,  loss  of  memory  and  intelli- 
gence, rrorose  and  unequal  disposition,  aversion  or  in- 
difference to  legitimate  pleasures  and  sports,  mental 
abstractions,  stupid  stolidity,  etc."  In  the  eloquent  in- 
troduction to  his  chapter  on  "  Masturbation  in  the  Fe- 
male," he  says,  "  Alas,  that  such  a  term  is  possible !  O, 
that  it  were  as  infrequent  as  it  is  monstrous,  and  that 
no  stern  necessity  compelled  us  to  make  the  startling 
disclosures  which  this  chapter  must  contain!  We  be- 
seech, in  advance,  that  every  young  creature  into  whose 
hands  this  book  may  chance  to  fall,  if  she  be  yet  pure 
and  innocent,  will  at  least  pass  over  this  chapter,  that 
she  may  still  believe  in  the  general  chastity  of  her  sex, 
that  she  may  not  know  the  depths  of  degradation  into 
which  it  is  possible  to  fall.  .  .  .  Beyond  all  dispute  the 
crime  exists."  In  the  following  rubric  he  gives  "  symp- 
toms which  enable  you  to  recognize  or  suspect  this 
crime,  ...  a  general  condition  of  languor,  weakness, 
and  loss  of  flesh,  the  absence  of  freshness  and  beauty,  of 
color  from  the  complexion,  of  the  vermilion  from  the 
lips,  and  whiteness  from  the  teeth,  which  arc  replaced 
by  a  pale,  lean,  puffy,  flabby,  livid  physiognomy,  a  blu- 
ish circle  round  the  eyes,  which  are  sunken,  dull  and 
spiritless,  a  sad  expression,  dry  cough,  oppression  and 


242  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

panting  on  the  least  exertion,  the  appearance  of  incip- 
ient consumption.  The  menstrual  periods  often  exist, 
at  least  in  the  commencement,  and  so  the  alteration  in 
health  cannot  be  attributed  to  their  derangement  or 
suppression.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  the  shape  im- 
paired." I  will  not  repeat  the  moral  symptoms,  which 
he  says  are  similar  to  those  of  the  opposite  sex,  but 
will  add  his  two  fearful  stimulants  to  maiden  imagina- 
tion, with  which  he  closes  the  list  of  symptoms,  "  The 
condition  called  '  nymphomania  '  sometimes  ensues,  in 
which  the  most  timid  girl  is  transformed  into  a  terma- 
gant, and  the  most  delicate  modesty  to  a  furious  au- 
dacity which  even  the  effrontery  of  prostitution  does 
not  approach.  Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  the  absence 
of  the  seminal  secretion  in  woman,  renders  this  vice  less 
destructive  than  in  man.  Ubi  irriatio  ibi  fluxus  (I  omit 
his  translation)  is  a  medical  maxim,  and  the  increase 
of  the  proper  secretions  of  the  female  organs  under 
habitual  irritation,  is  enormous  and  extremely  debili- 
tating. Witness  the  sad  examples  of  leucorrhceal  dis- 
charge (called  the  'whites  '),  now  so  common  as  to  be 
well  nigh  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception."  I  might 
quote  indefinitely  to  the  same  effect  from  this  and  a 
score  of  other  similar  authors,  whose  books  are  common 
in  all  our  better  homes,  but  before  stopping  to  discuss 
I  hasten  to  quote  from  others,  who  show  by  their  clear 
and  forceful  statements  that  the  leaven  of  common 
sense  at  last  has  begun  to  work.  In  a  book  published 
in  1916,  the  author  says,  "  The  ill  effects  of  masturba- 
tion are  usually  exaggerated.  It  is  undoubtedly  safe 
to  say  that  the  majority  of  young  men  and  women  have 
at  some  time  in  their  life  been  victims  of  the  practice. 
.  .  .  While  there  is  no  reason  to  lose  one's  head  over 
the  fact  that  he  has  had  the  habit  at  some  time  in  his 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  243 

life,  yet  the  fact  does  remain  that  masturbation  is  in- 
jurious and  should  be  avoided  by  all  young  men  and 
women.  ,  .  .  Though  masturbation  tends  to  rob  a  per- 
son of  his  strength  and  mental  energy  if  indulged  in 
excessively^,  nature  soon  repairs  any  damage  that  may 
have  been  done,  provided  the  habit  is  broken  up  and 
thoughts  along  this  line  are  controlled.  ...  A  spirit 
of  manhood  will  help  to  cure  the  habit,  and  by  so  doing 
one  will  not  only  regain  his  full  physical  strength,  but, 
what  is  more,  his  full  self-respect.  .  .  .  All  excess  is 
injurious.  .  .  .  Every  victory  enhances  self-respect. 
Let  the  past  go,  you  can't  change  it.  The  future  is 
yours."  The  author  of  another  up-to-date  book  says, 
"  Of  course  the  habit  of  self-abuse  means  ruin  to  both 
brain  and  body.  It  is  degrading  to  your  true  self, 
causes  a  loss  of  self-respect  and  makes  a  coward  of 
every  boy  and  man.  How  can  it  do  otherwise?  The 
mere  loss  of  the  bubbling  spring  of  manly  life,  the  sem- 
inal fluid,  would  bring  about  this  cowardice  in  a  bravely 
born  boy.  .  .  .  All  this  is  true  of  the  habit,  but  this 
one  fact  I  want  to  impress  upon  you  —  don't  think 
because  you  have  succumbed  to  the  desire  a  few  times, 
that  you  are  lost,  going  to  become  insane,  or  show  upon 
your  features  the  wrong  acts  of  youthful  ignorance. 
No,  don't  worry  yourself  ill,  don't  become  frightened  at 
these  misstatements,  at  what  the  advertising  doctors  say 
in  their  lying  circulars  and  daily  papers.  All  their 
statements  are  lies  and  used  to  get  your  money  and 
ruin  your  health  and  happiness.  ...  I  have  seen  hun- 
dreds of  men  and  youths  complete  nervous  wrecks  from 
fear  that  the  few  times  they  practiced  self-abuse  when 
boys  meant  that  they  were  doomed  to  go  to  the  asylum 
or  death.  And  all  this  misery  and  often  the  missing  of 
good  opportunities  in  life,  were  due  to  the  fact  that 


244  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

they  were  told  hobgoblin  stories  which  remained  with 
them  and  rose  to  frighten  them  at  the  most  sensitive  age 
in  life, —  early  manhood.      No  more  of  this  wrong  treat- 
ment   should   be    allowed.   .  .  .  You    should    remember 
that  it  is  not  so  much  the  physical  injury  self-abuse 
does,  not  the  '  losing  a  pound  of  blood  '  every  time  he 
abuses  himself,  it  is  the  brain  power  he  is  weakening, 
the  filling  of  brain  cells  with  pictures  which  shut  out 
proper    thoughts.     Of   course   it   hurts   your   growing 
strength,  keeps  you  weak  and  finally  affects  your  whole 
nervous  system,  but  the  youth  has  wonderful  powers  of 
recovery  from  physical  injury,  and  if  he  has  not  kept 
up  the  habit,  all  this  injury  may  be  repaired.     But  not 
so  with  the  brain.     We  cannot  get  rid  of  the  negatives 
there,   but   we    can   keep    them    suppressed.     And   how 
well  they  may  be  hidden  and  not  allowed  to  shut  out 
good  thinking,  depends  entirely  upon  the  length  and  fre- 
quency of  the  practice  of  self-abuse.  .  .  .  Boys  have 
been  scared  to  death  or  to  the  point  where  they  think 
death  would  be  a  relief  by  being  told  that  pimples  on 
the  face  were  signs  of  self-abuse  and  the  commencement 
of  '  Lost  Manhood.'     Pimples  on  the  face  of  a  growing 
boy  have  no  more  to  do  with  these  conditions  than  a 
corn    on   the   toe.     Remember    this    truth.      Self-abuse 
kept  up  will,  of  course,  bring  about  a  dirty  complexion, 
pale  face,  trembling  limbs,  and  the  general  appearance 
of  something  wrong  with  the  youth." 

I  quote  the  following  from  a  book  for  girls  and 
women,  published  in  1917. 

Masturbation  or  self-abuse  is  a  term  applied  to  a  bad 
habit  which  consists  in  handling  and  rubbing  the  genitals. 
It  is  a  bad  habit  because  it  is  apt  to  injure  the  health  and 
future  development  of  the  girl.  .  .  .  Girls  who  indulge  in 
the  habit  of  masturbation  to  excess  not  only  weaken  them- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  245 

selves,  become  anaemic  and  get  a  dingy,  pimply  complex- 
ion, but  they  lose  their  desire  for  normal  sexual  relations 
when  they  grow  up,  and  are  unable  to  derive  any  pleasure 
from  the  sexual  act  when  they  get  married.  In  fact,  many 
girls  who  masturbate  excessively  get  a  strong  aversion  to 
the  normal  sexual  act,  and  their  married  life  is  an  un- 
happy one.  Their  husbands  often  have  to  ask  for  a  di- 
vorce  Ninety  per  cent  of  all  boys  masturbate  more 

or  less,  only  about  ten  or  at  most  twenty  per  cent  of  girls 
are  addicted  to  this  habit.  But  whatever  the  percentage  of 
girls  may  be,  the  habit  is  an  injurious  one,  and  if  you  value 
your  health,  your  beauty,  and  proper  growth  and  mental 
development,  you  should  not  indulge  in  it.  .  .  .  And  moth- 
ers should  watch  their  children,  guard  them  against  devel- 
oping the  habit,  and  do  everything  possible  to  cure  them 
of  it,  if  prevention  comes  too  late.  But  while  you  see  I 
do  not  deny  the  evil  effects  of  masturbation,  it  is  necessary 
to  state  that  a  great  change  has  taken  place  in  our  opin- 
ions on  the  subject,  and  it  is  but  right  that  parents  should 
know  of  this  change  of  opinion  among  the  medical  pro- 
fession, particularly  among  those  who  specialize  in  sexol- 
ogy. When  parents  make  the  "  awful "  discoverey  that 
their  child  is  fondling  his  genitals,  .  .  .  they  feel  as  if  a 
great  calamity  had  befallen  them.  .  .  .  Imbued  with  the 
mediaeval  idea  of  the  "  sinfulness  "  of  the  habit,  as  well  as 
its  injuriousness,  they  begin  to  scold  the  child,  to  frighten 
it,  to  make  it  believe  that  it  is  doing  something  terrible, 
that  it  has  disgraced  them  and  itself,  and  they  try  to  per- 
suade it  that,  unless  it  stops  immediately,  the  most  direful 
consequences  are  awaiting  it.  The  results  of  this  mode  of 
procedure  are  disastrous,  much  more  so  than  is  the  mastur- 
bation itself.  ...  It  is  time  that  parents  and  physicians 
learn  that  the  injuriousness  of  the  habit  has  been  greatly, 
grossly  exaggerated.  It  is  time  that  they  know  that  the 
vast  majority  of  boys  and  girls  get  over  the  habit  without 
being  much  or  any  the  worse  for  it.  .  .  .  Every  thinking 
physician  and  sexologist  can  tell  you  that  picturing  the  mas- 
turbatory  habit  in  too  lurid  colors  and  stigmatizing  it  with 
too  strong  epithets  has,  as  a  rule,  the  contrary  effect  to  the 
one  expected.  The  victims  of  the  habit  consider  themselves 
degraded,  irretrievably  lost.     They  lose  their  self-respect, 


246  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  it  is,  on  account  of  that,  harder  for  them  to  break  them- 
selves of  the  habit.  ...  I  am  not  trying  to  minimize  the 
dangers  of  masturbation,  for,  if  indulged  from  an  early  age 
and  to  great  excess,  the  results  may  be  disastrous.  But, 
even  if  I  were  to  minimize  the  evil  consequences,  that  would 
be  less  of  a  sin  than  to  exaggerate  them  the  way  it  has  been 
done  for  so  many  years,  by  so  many  people  in  the  profession 
and  out  of  it. 

In  another  book  published  in  1917,  we  find,  in  regard 
to  masturbation, 

To  a  normal  mind  this  habit  is  so  grossly  offensive  as 
to  excite  intense  disgust  —  at  worst  it  may  cause  physical 
and  mental  wreck.  On  this  n^atter,  however,  it  is  very 
important  that  I  be  not  misunderstood.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  the  habit  may  continue  years  without  producing 
noticeable  deterioration  of  health.  ...  In  general,  the 
health  is  not  ruined,  as  is  alleged  in  the  quack  advertise- 
ments that  deface  and  disgrace  some  journals  that  are  al- 
lowed to  enter  our  homes,  but  the  fact  remains  that  the 
practice  is  low,  filthy,  bestial,  and  degrading.  Whatever 
may  be  said  in  depreciation  of  self-pollution,  it  immediately 
injures  only  the  person  who  practices  it,  and  by  so  much  is 
less  evil  than  a  method  of  sensual  gratification  that  involves 
another. 

In  a  book  on  women,  for  the  professions,  published 
in  1908,  we  find: 

If  masturbation  is  practiced  in  moderation,  it  cannot  be 
considered  pathological.  Moderate  masturbation  seems  to 
be  almost  a  natural  phenomenon.  Cohn  says,  "  Masturba- 
tion is  such  a  frequent  manipulation  that  out  of  a  hundred 
young  men  and  girls,  ninety-nine  are  addicted  to  it,  and 
the  hundredth  is  concealing  the  truth."  .  .  .  The  habit,  once 
established,  masturbation  presents  an  unconquerable  im- 
pulse and  a  resultant  incapacity  to  control  it.  It  is  then 
the  cause  of  grave,  material  injury  to  the  nervous  system. 
It  dwarfs  the  entire  female  organism.     It  makes  a  girl  shy. 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  247 

offish,  squeamish,  repellent,  and  weakens  and  sickens  love. 
.  .  .  The  female  masturbator  becomes  excessively  prudish, 
despises  and  hates  the  opposite  sex  and  forms  passionate 
attachments  for  other  women.  .  .  .  Masturbation  is  further 
the  cause  of  a  great  number  of  the  female  complaints.  It 
is  often  the  cause  of  obstruction,  painful  menstruation,  of 
ovarian  neuralgia,  of  weakness  of  the  legs  and  of  sexual  irri- 
tation. It  causes  pruritus  vulvae,  hypertrophy  of  the 
clitoris  and  labia  minora,  hyperaemia  of  the  vaginal  orifice, 
fluor  albus,  and  cervical  catarrh.  Masturbating  women 
complain  of  general  weakness  and  palpitation  of  the  heart. 
The  author  recently  treated  a  young  onanist  of  seventeen, 
who  suffered  from  painful  menstruation,  attacks  of  palpita- 
tion of  the  heart,  from  melancholy  and  fear  of  death,  and 
at  the  same  time  suicidal  inclinations. 

My  proneness  to  error  is  so  embarrassing  that  I  have 
striven  to  be  absolutely  accurate  in  my  transcriptions, 
and  the  above  quotations  have  the  same  form,  punctua- 
tion, and  emphasis  which  they  had  in  the  sources  from 
which  they  were  taken.  Nearly  all  the  above  authors 
have  college  or  university  degrees,  in  addition  to  being 
regular  reputable  physicians,  and  some  of  them  are  of 
the  very  highest  repute. 

The  book  first  quoted  from,  which  gives  the  lurid 
pictures  of  the  direful  results  of  auto-erotism,  is  typical 
of  many  books  in  circulation  today  and  of  hundreds 
used  as  authority  in  the  past.  An  American  college 
president  writes  that  he  has  carefully  read  this  book, 
and  adds,  "  May  God  bless  the  author,  and  may  his  book 
fall  into  many  hands  where  it  may  save,  as  well  as  pur- 
ify life."  Twenty-four  other  American  college  presi- 
dents, all  in  different  stages  of  ecstasy,  unite  with  him 
in  scattering  encomiums  of  his  work.  They  crown  his 
head  with  laurel,  and  spread  palm  branches  beneath  his 
feet.  But  liis  unequivocal  statements  are  strangely 
modified  by  all  the  other  authors  whom  I  have  quoted. 


M8  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

The  transition  from  ignorance  to  knowledge  is  slow 
and  tortuous,  and  almost  past  understanding.  The 
way  these  authors  constantly  and  insistently  contradict 
themselves  in  the  same  sentence  or  on  the  same  page 
reminds  one  of  a  politician  provincially  said  to  be 
"  straddle  the  fence,"  or  of  what  we  used  to  call  a 
"  Good  Lord  and  good  Devil  "  sort  of  man.  It  is  im- 
possible to  restrain  a  smile  at  such  efforts  as  these  to 
cling  to  the  old,  fearsome  traditions,  while  sensing  and 
being  unable  to  deny  science,  reason,  and  common  sense. 
Undoubtedly,  these  authors  were  once  subjected  to  the 
frightful  stories  and  the  deliberate  terrorizing  of  the 
child  or  adolescent  mind  and  that  is  why  these  views  are 
so  ineffaceable,  even  when  overwhelmed  by  contrary 
knowledge  of  the  most  definite  character.  How  the 
young  people  for  whom  these  books  are  intended  can 
tell  what  the  authors  think  about  masturbation,  I  am 
unable  to  imagine.  I  have  studied  their  statements  and 
the  subject,  long  and  well,  but  when  a  man  says,  in  one 
sentence,  "  The  habit  of  self-abuse  means  ruin  to  both 
brain  and  body,"  and  almost  immediately  says,  "  Don't 
worry.  Don't  become  frightened  at  what  the  advertis- 
ing doctors  say  in  their  lying  circulars  and  daily  pa- 
pers. All  their  statements  are  lies  and  used  to  get 
your  money  and  ruin  your  health  and  happiness,"  I  am 
unable  to  get  any  clear  notion  of  what  he  would  have 
the  young  person  think.  But  the  quack  doctors'  state- 
ments are  perfectly  plain.  When  another  says,  *'  Mas- 
turbation tends  to  ruin  strength  and  mental  energy  but 
nature  soon  repairs  any  damage  that  may  have  been 
done  provided  the  habit  is  broken  up,"  how  does  one 
know  that  he  has  received  this  saving  knowledge  in  time.'' 
What  inference  is  to  be  drawn  from  the  remark  that 
"  Pimples  on  the  face  of  a  growing  boy  have  no  more  to 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  249 

do  with  these  conditions,  than  a  corn  on  the  toe.  Re- 
member this  truth.  Self-abuse,  kept  up,  will,  of  course, 
bring  about  a  dirty  complexion,  pale  face,  trembling 
limbs  and  a  general  appearance  of  something  wrong 
with  the  youth."  I  do  not  need  to  go  into  all  the  de- 
tails of  the  various  antitheses  in  these  quotations. 
How  it  is  possible  for  so  many  men,  in  such  a  short 
space,  to  so  frequently  and  unqualifiedly  contradict 
themselves  is  to  me  unintelligible.  While  the  last  author 
says  that  masturbation  will  not  cause  pimples,  evidently 
trying  to  relieve  the  minds  of  young  people  who  have 
been  made  self-conscious  by  such  lies,  he  does  not  im- 
prove the  matter  much  by  saying  in  the  next  sentence 
that  masturbation  will  cause  a  "  dirty  complexion,  pale 
face,  trembling  limbs,  etc."  The  next  author  is  still  in 
the  stage  where  he  asserts  that  girls  who  indulge  to 
excess  in  the  habit  of  masturbation  weaken  themselves, 
become  anaemic  and  get  a  dingy,  pimply  complexion, 
lose  their  desire  for  normal  relations,  etc.  Still  he  is 
careful  to  qualify  his  statement  by  the  word  "  exces- 
sive," and  later  he  says  that  the  old  scare  methods  are 
disastrous,  and  it  is  time  that  parents  and  physicians 
learn  that  "  the  injuriousness  of  the  habit  has  been 
greatly,  grossly  exaggerated,"  and  he  says  it  is  less  of  a 
sin  to  minimize  the  evil  consequences  than  to  exaggerate 
them.  Another  author,  while  saying  that  masturbation 
may  cause  physical  and  mental  wreck,  and  in  general 
characterizes  it  as  "  low,  bestial,  filthy,  and  degrading,'* 
immediately  says  that  it  is  very  important  that  he  be 
not  misunderstood  and  that  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that 
the  habit  may  continue  years  without  producing  notice- 
able deterioration  of  health,  and  he  generously  admits 
that  this  habit  is  less  evil  than  promiscuous  sensual 
gratification.     The   next   in   order,   after   saying  that 


250  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

masturbation,  practiced  in  moderation  cannot  be  con- 
sidered pathological,  and  that  it  seems  to  be  almost  a 
natural  phenomenon,  and  approves  an  authority  who 
considers  the-  practice  practically  universal,  winds  up 
by  saying  that  it  makes  a  girl  "  shy,  offish,  squeamish, 
repellent,"  and  that  it  "  weakens  and  sickens  love  "  and 
is  the  cause  of  numerous  distressing  female  complaints. 
Perhaps  it  may  be  well  to  analyze  a  little  more  fully 
the  statements  of  tliis  last  author,  since  his  book  is  a 
pretentious  one  and  written  for  the  profession.  His 
statement  that  moderate  masturbation  cannot  be  con- 
sidered pathological  and  that  it  is  almost  a  natural 
phenomenon,  and  giving-  statistics  to  show  that  it  is 
practically  universal,  would  indicate  that  this  is  not  a 
very  serious  matter.  But  without  stating  what  he  con- 
siders this  normal  degree  of  masturbation,  he  says  that 
"  the  habit  once  established  presents  an  unconquerable 
impulse,"  and  he  gives  a  long  train  of  symptoms  pro- 
duced by  it.  But  can  it  be  proved  that  any  of  them 
are  produced  by  it?  If  all  girls  masturbate,  why  are 
only  a  few  made  "  shy,  offish,  squeamish,  and  repellent  " 
by  it,  why  are  not  all  prudish,  following  the  same  argu- 
ment, and  why  does  the  woman  whose  mind  has  been 
freed  from  the  shame  and  fear  complex  cease  to  be  prud- 
ish; while  the  one  retaining  these  complexes  continues 
to  be,  though  both  may  masturbate  at  the  time,  or 
neither  may  have  done  so  for  years?  How  can  he  say 
that  masturbation  is  ever  the  cause  of  "  painful  men- 
struation, obstruction,  ovarian  neuralgia,  or  weakness," 
since  for  every  case  of  these  troubles  claimed  to  be 
caused  by  masturbation,  he,  I,  or  any  one  can  find  fifty 
cases  who  masturbate  as  much  or  more  and  have  none  of 
these  symptoms  ?  As  to  "  sexual  irritation  "  I  should 
prefer  to  call  it  a  cause  rather  than  a  result  of  mastur- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  251 

bation,  and  can  do  so  certainly  as  logically.  The  same 
remarks  apply  to  "  pruritis  vulvae."  Providing  mas- 
turbation does  enlarge  the  clitoris  and  nymphae,  I  am 
anxious  to  learn  what  if  any  pathological  significance 
to  attach  to  this  phenomenon,  but  it  certainly  does  not 
ordinarily  cause  any  such  enlargement.  I  have  exam- 
ined but  one  woman  who  claimed  never  to  have  mastur- 
bated. She  had  a  clitoris  of  the  ordinary  size.  I  ex- 
amined one  who  admitted  that  she  had  masturbated  at 
least  once  a  day  for  ten  years.  Her  clitoris  was  smaller 
than  that  of  the  one  who  never  masturbated. 

I  have  examined  not  less  than  twenty-five  women  who 
had  masturbated,  as  they  th-ought,  and  as  many  would 
think,  excessivel}'^  from  eight  to  twelve  years,  but  not  one 
of  these  women  had  an  enlarged  clitoris.  I  have  exam- 
ined many  more  women  who  claimed  to  have  mastur- 
bated only  on  the  rarest  occasions,  and  one  of  these 
women  has  a  clitoris  somewhat  larger  than  the  ordinary. 
I  know  of  a  case  of  pseudo-heraiaphroditism  in  a  young 
person.  She  masturbates  to  some  extent,  and  has  a 
very  large  clitoris,  but  this  is  congenital  and  not  caused 
by  masturbation.  If  a  woman  has  a  large  clitoris, 
which  is  very  uncommon,  she  will  undoubtedly  mastur- 
bate more  or  less,  at  least  in  childhood.  Later,  after 
she  begins  to  worry,  if  she  finds  the  clitoris  larger  than 
in  other  women,  she  will  ascribe  this  enlargement  to 
masturbation,  just  as  one  case  of  mine  was  certain  that 
masturbation  caused  valvular  heart  disease,  and  an- 
other believed,  for  fifteen  years,  that  it  caused  scoliosis, 
and  still  another  passed  ten  years  in  terror,  fearing  that 
it  would  cause  pregnancy.  What  has  been  said  of  the 
clitoris  applies  equally  well  to  the  nymphae,  only  I 
might  add  that  if  masturbation  produced  an  enlarge- 
ment of  the  nymphae,  certainly  intercourse  would  do  so, 


252  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

so  all  married  women  would  gradually  acquire  an  hyper- 
trophy of  these  parts,  and  prostitutes  would  develop 
an  elephantiasis.  He  says  that  masturbation  produces 
"  hyperemia  of  the  vaginal  orifice,"  and  this,  I  confess, 
I  am  able  neither  to  confirm  nor  deny.  The  part  which 
he  designates  as  hyperasmic  is  so  insubstantial,  evanes- 
cent, intangible,  that  I  can  form  no  concept  of  it  and 
know  no  way  of  dealing  with  it  in  ordinary  language.  I 
can  readily  believe  that  the  structures  surrounding  the 
vaginal  orifice  become  hyperaemic,  as  the  result  of  mas- 
turbation, for  they  are  always  so  when  there  is  sexual 
excitement,  but  it  would  take  a  more  sophistical  dialec- 
tician than  I  to  discuss,  with  any  coherency,  much  less 
to  understand  what  is  meant  by  hypera?mia  of  the  orifice 
itself. 

As  for  leucorrhoea  and  cervical  catarrh,  which  he  says 
are  caused  by  masturbation,  I  think  that  any  one  of 
experience  will  agree  that  these  conditions  very  rarely 
occur  in  girls  or  young  unmarried  women  who,  we  know, 
almost  invariably  masturbate,  but  that  both  these  con- 
ditions are  very  common  in  married  women  who  have  had 
children,  but  who  have  not  masturbated  for  many  years. 
Still,  I  have  known  four  neurotic  women  whose  sexual 
desire  was  of  an  almost  constant  character,  but  who, 
from  fear  and  shame,  refrained  from  auto-erotism  al- 
most entirely.  These  women  all  suffered  from  pain  in 
the  ovaries,  prolapse  symptoms  and  leucorrhoea.  After 
resorting  to  moderate  auto-erotism  for  a  time,  these 
symptoms  entirely  disappeared.  He  says  that  mastur- 
bating women  complain  of  general  weakness  and  palpi- 
tation of  the  heart.  How  could  they  help  it  after  read- 
ing his  list  of  symptoms,  which  is  strangely  similar  to 
the  lists  in  the  ordinary  scare  books  .^  He  mentions 
treating  a  young  woman  Onanist  of  seventeen,  who  suf- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  253 

fered  painful  menstruation,  palpitation  of  the  heart, 
melancholy,  and  fear  of  death  and  also  suicidal  inten- 
tions. We  all  know  that  none  of  these  symptoms,  with 
the  possible  exception  of  painful  menstruation,  could 
possibly  have  been  caused  by  masturbation,  though  fear 
of  the  consequences  of  masturbation  has  produced  these 
symptoms  in  innumerable  cases,  from  time  immemorial. 
A  similar  analysis  of  the  symptoms  resulting  from  mas- 
turbation, given  by  any  author  who  has  drawn  his  ideas 
from  the  old  sex  literature,  would  give  similar  results. 
There  ought  to  be  some  way  to  prevent  statements  so 
palpably  erroneous  going  forth  as  the  basis  of  sex 
instruction. 

Practically  every  author  except  the  first  agrees  that 
scare  talk  and  quack  advertisements  have  done  young 
people  incalculable  harm.  In  so  far  forth  they  have 
discovered  the  truth  and  are  doing  a  tremendous  service 
to  humanity  in  acknowledging  it.  Their  next  effort  is 
to  remove  from  their  own  books  this  scare  element,  which 
they  know  has  done  so  much  harm,  but  this  is  for  them 
a  delicate  task.  To  begin  with,  they  have  apparently 
not  yet  gone  far  enough  to  be  entirely  free  from  this 
scare,  which  has  at  one  time  or  another  been  a  menace 
to  nearly  every  one,  and  if  they  do  recognize  the  truth 
about  masturbation,  i.  e.,  that  in  itself  it  is  ordinarily 
entirely  harmless,  they  fear  the  result  on  young  people, 
or  they  hesitate  to  oppose  the  prevailing  public  opinion. 
The  delicate  position  in  which  they  have  found  them- 
selves has  resulted  in  this  most  amazing  and  amusing 
series  of  contradictions  which  I  have  quoted.  But  this 
is  only  a  sample  of  the  books  whicli  I  have  on  my  desk. 
Scores  of  recent  books,  which  I  have,  or  which  are  on 
the  market,  exhibit  these  identical  discrepancies.  I 
think  I  have  already  said  that  they  exhibit  a  most  laud- 


254  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

able  trend  of  educated  public  opinion,  now  in  the  transi- 
tion stage,  but  how  the  young  people,  for  whom  these 
books  are  intended  can  tell  what  the  authors  think  about 
masturbation  is  beyond  any  imaginative  flight  of  which 
I  am  capable.     If  the  candid  and  unbiased  reader  will 
study  these  statements  carefully  and  inform  me  if  he 
gets  any  coherent  idea  from  them  as  to  what  sex  conduct 
for  young  people  is  correct,  moral  and  safe,  I  shall  be 
greatly  in  his  debt.     As  for  myself,  had  I  not  long  ago 
become   convinced,   by   unimpeachable   evidence  to   the 
contrary,  I  am  confident  that  these  statements  taken 
together  would  enhance   rather  than   allay   any   fears 
which  I  might  have  in  my  mind  as  to  the  results  of  auto- 
erotism of  any  variety  and  in  any  degree,  though  I 
would  not  wish,  in  the  least,  to  detract  from  the  evident 
good  intentions   of  the   authors.     When,   after  a  suf- 
ficient working  of  this  leaven,  the  time  arrives  for  a 
general  acceptance  of  facts  and  reason  and  a  rejection 
of  ancient  authority,  individual  accomplishment  will  be 
substantially  increased  everywhere.     Then  the  wear  and 
tear,  nerve  strain,  anxiety  and  constant  puzzling  over 
personal   sex  problems,  now   so   general,  will  be  done 
away  with,  and  all  that  energy  can  go  to  some  useful 
purpose.     Young  women,   feeling  themselves  unfit   for 
marriage,  or  taught  that  it  is  an  unimportant  matter, 
will  look  forward  to  it  as  a  natural  and  necessary  end 
in  life,   or  as   the   real  beginning   of  life.     When   sex 
assumes  its  true  dignity,  young  men  who  now  seek  in 
illegitimate  ways  the  joys  which  only  marriage  brings, 
and  those  who  feel  themselves  incompetent  or  who  dread 
its  responsibilities  will  consider  a  wife  and  children  the 
principal  things  in  life  to  look  forward   to.     As   one 
who  earnestly  strove  to  guide  our  student   footsteps, 
often  and  fervently  said  in  his  morning  petitions,  "  Has- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  255 

ten  the   day,   0   Lord !  "  when   these   things   shall  be ! 

Have  I  made  it  plain  that  legitimate  happiness  is  a 
necessary  cogener  of  health,  longevity,  altruism, 
morals  and  religion?  Does  any  one  fail  to  understand 
that  ignorance  and  fear  concerning  sex  have  been  ruth- 
less destroyers  of  happiness  through  all  time,  and  have 
been,  consequently,  a  direct  menace  to  health,  long  life, 
usefulness,  and  morality?  Have  I  clearly  shown  that 
extreme  austerity  in  religion  or  a  prescribed  super- 
human virtue  automaticalh"  will  engender  materialism 
and  profligacy,  and  that  the  converse  is  equally  true? 
It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  both  extremes  are  bad, 
since  either  will  result  automatically  in  the  other,  and 
from  this,  in  turn,  the  other  will  result ;  and  we  all  know, 
to  start  with,  that  licentiousness  is  bad.  But  without 
proving  it  logically,  asceticism  or  extreme  disdain  of 
sex,  is  plainly  more  suicidal,  even,  than  license.  I  think 
that  no  one  will  question  that  a  mean  somewhere  between 
the  two  is  right  from  any  physical,  moral,  or  religious 
point  of  view.  The  advocates  of  abstract,  unbiologic 
virtue  have  continued  to  hold  sway  because  our  early- 
acquired  sense  of  right  has  caused  us  to  adhere  to  an 
idealism  that  was  above  realization  in  the  fear  that  any 
lowering  of  the  standard  would  cause  our  identification 
with  license,  which  we  know  leads  to  decadence. 

If  we  would  get  light  from  electricity  we  must  have 
power,  magnets,  coils,  rheostats,  wiring  and  lamps. 
We  shall  get  no  light  until  these  things  are  constructed 
and  related  according  to  certain  immutable  rules. 
Slight  variations  in  voltage,  lamps  or  other  things  are 
permissible,  but  we  cannot  change  the  general  plan. 
There  is  a  pre-established  harmony  in  man  that  pro- 
hibits vital  changes  if  we  would  obtain  efficiency  and 
longevity.     A  function  so  vital  as  sex  can  be  modified 


^56  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

to  some  extent,  but  it  can  never  be  entirely  emancipated 
from  the  laws  of  biology  which  govern  it.  We  are  be- 
ginning to  learn  these  laws.  I  have  shown  the  hesitat- 
ing transition  from  the  old  ignorance  to  the  new  knowl- 
edge, which  is  now  taking  place.  If  the  evils,  ineffi- 
ciency, neurosis,  divorce,  prostitution,  degeneracyj 
which  accumulated  under  the  old  system  are  to  be  cor^ 
rected,  the  physiology  and  psychology  of  sex  must  be 
studied  and  discussed  in  the  open. 

At  the  risk  of  repetition  I  state  some  conclusions  of 
my  own,  mention  some  investigators  whose  conclusions 
are  similar  and  give  some  reasons  for  the  position  ar- 
rived at.  I  conclude  that  auto-erotism  is  the  chief 
point  of  attack,  since  the  attitude  toward  this  practice 
has  been  influential  in  establishing  the  belief  among  the 
best  people  that  all  sex  discussion  is  improper  and  that 
any  sex  expression  other  than  for  procreation  is  wrong. 
As  regards  auto-erotism,  I  conclude  that  it  is  impos- 
sible, from  the  nature  of  the  case,  to  determine  whether 
or  not  it  does  any  harm  to  individuals  who  are  con- 
genitally  diseased  or  deficient.  As  regards  normal  peo- 
ple of  either  sex,  it  is  sometimes  necessary  and  never 
does  harm  unless  carried  to  great  excess ;  but  it  is  never 
carried  to  great  excess  by  normal  people  unless  worry 
and  self-condemnation  keep  sex  ever  in  the  sufferer's 
mind.  Constant  worry  about  sex  is  as  much  of  a  sex 
stimulant  as  persistent,  deliberate  attempts  to  procure 
erotic  stimulation.  Great  excess  varies  with  the  indi- 
vidual temperament  and  development,  and  moderation 
also  varies  with  these  characteristics.  Once  a  day  or 
six  times  a  day  might  be  great  excess.  Once  a  fortnight 
or  once  a  day  might  be  moderation.  It  is  possible  for 
once  a  day  to  be  moderate,  it  is  probable  that  it  would 
be  excessive.     Ordinarily  sex  demands  of  married  peo- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  257 

pie  may  be,  with  best  results  gratified  two  to  four  times 
a  week.  Umnarried  people  of  similar  characteristics 
would  have  as  urgent  demand  once  or  twice  a  week, 
which  might,  if  repression  produced  symptoms  of  severe 
discomfort,  be  gratified  with  perfect  propriety,  auto- 
erotically.  Sex  dreams  in  women  and  emissions  in  men 
often  make  unnecessary  any  conscious  auto-erotism  in 
the  unmarried.  A  frank  statement  to  one  in  fear  of 
the  results  of  auto-erotism,  that  the  practice  is  harm- 
less and  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  if  one  is  making 
honest  efforts  at  control,  never  leads  to  an  increase  in 
the  practice,  but  always  to  a  diminution.  In  case  the 
practice  has  been  replaced  by  a  neurosis,  explanations 
ordinarily  will  cure  the  neurosis,  after  which  the  prac- 
tice is  likely  to  be  resumed  with  about  half  the  fre- 
quency that  existed  before  the  neurosis.  Sublimation, 
or  dispersion  of  the  sex  impulse,  into  various  channels  of 
thought  or  endeavor,  almost  invariably  w411  reduce,  but 
seldom  or  never  entirely  control,  sex  desires  in  a  virile 
man  or  a  sexually  mature  woman.  Marital  difficulties 
are  usually  due  to  sexual  ignorance  or  misunderstand- 
ing. These  can  often  be  corrected  by  the  parties  them- 
selves, after  they  have  established  sufficiently  confiden- 
tial relations.  If  the}''  themselves  are  not  successful,  an 
experienced  physician  generally  will  have  little  difficulty 
in  effecting  a  complete  reconciliation.  Marital  rela- 
tions among  conscientious  people  are  more  likely  to 
be  too  infrequent  than  too  frequent.  So-called  female 
frigidity  is  almost  invariably  a  misnomer.  The  appar- 
ent frigidity  is  due  to  shame,  fear,  or  ignorance,  or  all  of 
these  combined,  in  wife  or  husband,  or  in  both  parties. 
Some  investigators  in  sex  fields  agreeing  substantially 
with  these  conclusions  are  Emminghaus,  Griesinger,  El- 
lis Herbert,  Forel,  Sir  James  Paget,  Woodruff,  Brill, 


258  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Thiernich  and  Nacke ;  and  numerous  other  investigators 
are  approaching  this  position. 

These  conclusions  are  the  result  of  a  knowledge  of  the 
intimate  details  of  the  sex  lives  of  several  hundred  ap- 
parently normal  men  and  women  and  of  several  hundred 
neurotics.  The  attempt  was  made  to  study  only  such 
normal  people  as  were  in  good  health,  successful,  and 
of  the  highest  moral  standards.  Ten  years  ago  these 
conclusions  were  tentative.  Rapidly  accumulating  evi- 
dence since  has  invariably  confirmed  them.  Applica- 
tion of  these  principles  to  young  people  in  my  own 
family  and  outside,  and  to  married  and  unmarried  peo- 
ple of  both  sexes  and  all  ages,  has  given  surprising 
results  in  absolute  accord  with  these  conclusions,  and 
there  has  been,  so  far,  no  single  exception. 

In  the  choicest  archives  of  the  greatest  country  in  the 
world,  in  the  most  portentous  declaration  ever  made,  in 
a  document  signed  in  courage,  faith,  and  determination 
and  sealed  in  blood,  we  read  that  "  all  men  are  created 
equal,  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights,  that  among  these  are  life,  lib- 
erty, and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  The  founders  of 
this  great  republic  and  their  successors  realized  that  the 
greatest  agent  to  promote  freedom,  equality,  and  happi- 
ness was  universal  education.  To  that  end  our  policies 
all  have  been  directed  until,  in  no  nation  in  the  world 
is  there  such  a  universal  distribution  of  knowledge  as 
in  our  own.  The  one  department  of  instruction  which 
has  been  under  a  permanent  ban,  though  there  is  no 
law,  reason,  or  justice  for  it,  is  that  which  deals  with 
the  intimate  details  of  family  life,  the  organs  of  genera- 
tion, and  the  act  of  procreation.  The  Constitution 
provides  for  freedom  in  the  establishment  and  exercise 
of  religion,  for  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press.     Yet 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  259 

this  ban  on  education  in  the  most  fundamental  things  of 
life,  things  which,  more  than  all  else  after  the  establish- 
ment of  free  institutions,  influence  the  life,  happiness 
and  usefulness  of  every  one,  is  the  result  of  religious 
dogma  conceived  prior  to  the  Middle  Ages.  I  have 
shown  how  all  philosophy  concurs  in  the  belief  that 
happiness  in  a  legitimate  way  is  a  legitimate  goal  for  all 
mankind.  Our  patriotic  forebears  recognized  this  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence.  I  have  said  enough 
to  demonstrate,  though  most  people  already  know  it, 
that  ignorance  in  sex  matters  is  a  ruthless  destroyer  of 
much  legitimate  happiness.  Ignorance  in  agriculture, 
in  politics,  in  the  mechanical  trades,  in  the  professions, 
anywhere,  in  short,  means  incompetence  and  misery. 
Sooner  than  in  other  fields  does  ignorance  of  the  funda- 
mentals of  life  lead  to  these  results.  The  most  esoteric 
student  and  the  most  ignorant  man  or  woman  is  bound 
to  admit  that  this  ignorance  does  exist.  This  fragmen- 
tary philosophy  would  be  incomplete  did  I  not  urge 
some  method  of  repairing  this  blighting  defect  in  our 
otherwise  superior  educational  system. 

There  are  those,  the  world  over,  who  advocate  sex 
education  in  the  public  schools.  The  Mannheim  con- 
ference years  ago  declared  for  this,  and  this  system  has 
some  support  in  this  country.  To  a  limited  extent  and 
in  special  cases  this  may  be  a  proper  course,  but  it  can 
have  no  general  application  with  us  at  present,  and 
probably  never.  Proper  instruction  in  sex  matters 
never  can  come  from  young  unmarried  women  who  have 
no  clear  ideas  of  their  own  as  to  proper  sex  conduct, 
though  married  teachers  and  school  superintendents, 
who  have  long  studied  these  matters  with  an  open  mind, 
are  often  competent  to  give  such  instruction.  Still  it  is 
doubtful  whether  this  instruction  ever  can  be  given  to 


260  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

classes  of  boys  and  girls  together,  or  to  either  sepa- 
rately. Sex  instruction  must  be  given  to  the  individual 
or  to  small  groups,  for  the  present,  at  any  rate.  The 
qualified  educator  always  should  be  ready  to  discharge 
his  obligations  in  this  particular  to  those  young  people 
who  come  within  his  influence  and  who  do  not  otherwise 
obtain  proper  sex  advice.  Parents  are  naturally  the 
ones  first  to  instruct  their  children  along  sex  lines,  but 
here  too  we  meet  an  obstacle.  Until  a  generation  has 
matured  and  has  had  children  of  its  own,  after  sex  in- 
struction for  young  people  has  become  general,  parents 
are  likely  to  do  more  harm  than  good  with  this  instruc- 
tion. Still,  there  are  now  some  properly  informed  and 
others  capable  of  acquiring  the  necessary  information. 
All  such  should  be  convinced  that  to  evade  instructing 
their  children  in  these  vital  matters  is  nothing  short  of 
criminal  negligence.  Since  there  has  hitherto  been  no 
preparation  for  sex  instruction  in  the  medical  schools, 
physicians,  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  start  with 
little  more  knowledge  than  the  laity  along  these  lines. 
It  is  no  less  their  duty  to  acquire  speedily  the  proper 
information,  and  their  special  training  in  scientific  mat- 
ters generally,  and  their  special  facilities  for  acquiring 
such  knowledge  render  their  obligation  to  the  public 
greater  than  that  of  any  other  class.  No  squeamish- 
ness  should  prevent  an  attempt  on  their  part  to  dis- 
charge this  educational  and  sociological  duty  to  pa- 
tients, friends,  acquaintances,  and  all  who  appear  to  be 
in  need  of  proper  advice.  Clergymen  are  peculiarly 
adapted  for  acting  in  such  an  advisory  capacity. 
Their  obligation  to  fit  themselves  and  to  instruct,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  young  of  their  respective  parishes  is 
little  less  than  that  of  the  physician.  The  abolition  of 
self-consciousness  and  prudery  and  the  increase  in  con- 


AN  INCIPIENT  PHILOSOPHY  261 

fidential  relations  between  men  and  women  generally  in 
matters  pertaining  to  their  inner  lives  will  more  readily 
enable  society  to  detect  and  ostracize  the  wolves  in 
sheep's  clothing,  which  always  will  be  found  in  all  pro- 
fessions and  callings.  Educated  men  and  women  every- 
where, outside  the  groups  which  I  have  named,  should 
study  sex  phenomena,  calmly  and  sanely,  and  extend  the 
knowledge  which  they  acquire  to  those  in  need,  within 
their  spheres  of  influence.  Churches,  medical  and  legal 
societies,  and  social  organizations,  by  recognizing  and 
encouraging  legitimate  investigation,  and  by  demanding 
general  instruction,  should  be  the  principal  agents  in 
overcoming  ignorance  of  sex.  The  cardinal  thing  in 
sex  instruction,  as  in  anything  else,  is  to  tell  the  truth, 
and  if  one  is  halting  between  two  opinions,  he  should 
give  both,  and  let  the  individual  choose  for  himself. 

I  have  given  my  special  beliefs  in  other  places,  but,  in 
general,  children  before  puberty  can  profitably  be  given 
little  more  than  plain  and  simple  statements  in  addition 
to  answering  truthfully  their  questions.  Reasons  must 
be  given  later.  It  is  of  great  importance  that  young 
people  be  brought  into  confidential  relations  with  their 
elders,  and  that  the  almost  instinctive  fear  that  they 
have  of  asking  for  sex  information,  be  overcome  by  judi- 
cious reassurances.  The  scare  element  should  be  abol- 
ished entirely  from  sex  teaching.  There  is  pretty  gen- 
eral agreement  that  it  does  no  good,  and  there  is  definite 
knowledge  that  it  does  incalculable  harm.  All  sex  phi- 
losophy and  teaching  should  be  based,  as  far  as  possible, 
on  fact,  not  on  opinion.  Experience  shows  that  there 
need  be  no  fear  of  the  consequences  of  telling  young 
people  all  that  is  known,  especially  after  they  are  well 
advanced  in  the  pubertic  period.  All  legitimate  sources 
of  knowledge  which  are  open  to  their  elders  should  be 


262  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

made  easy  of  access  for  them.  It  must  be  remembered 
that,  until  general  sex  education  of  young  people  has 
long  been  the  rule,  there  will  be  great  need  of  such  edu- 
cation among  adults,  married  and  single,  of  all  ages  and 
of  both  sexes.  The  old  ideas  die  hard,  but  I  would  say, 
finally,  to  those  who  still  cling  conscientiously  to  them, 
that  their  position  can  be  kept  tenable,  and  the  truth 
and  efficiency  of  these  ideas  maintained  in  no  other  way 
than  by  the  careful  study  of  people  and  the  observation 
of  the  results  of  the  acceptance  of  these  ideas.  The 
only  way  to  refute  my  ideas  or  similar  innovations  is 
also  by  a  study  of  the  results  of  their  application.  We 
all  look  and  hope  for  something  better,  but,  until  that 
time  shall  come,  I  propose  to  stick  to  the  bridge  that 
has  carried  many  safely  over. 


APPENDIX 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS 


I  STATED  in  the  introduction  that  I  had  been  criti- 
cized very  lightly  for  the  position  taken  in  a  former 
book,  Rational  Sea:  Ethics.  Since  that  time,  I  have 
become  aware  of  a  few  rather  severe,  perhaps  virulent, 
criticisms  of  that  book.  These  were  not  unexpected, 
knowing  as  I  did  the  prevalence  of  the  old  ideas  in  these 
matters.  That  there  are  so  few  such  criticisms  is  a 
sure  indication  that  people  are  beginning  to  think  for 
themselves,  rather  than  to  depend  entirely  upon  ancient 
ideas.  Nevertheless,  I  think  it  may  be  of  use  in  pro- 
mulgating a  more  general  education  in  sex  matters,  to 
enter  upon  a  short  discussion  of  the  most  violent  criti- 
cism which  I  have  seen ;  not  in  self-defence,  but  to  help 
make  clear  a  position,  which  it  is  perhaps  difficult  for 
one  not  accustomed  to  independent  thought  and  study, 
to  understand : 

Though  finding  many  things  to  approve  in  this  book,  the 
present  reviewer  must  regard  it  in  some  respects  as  neither 
rational  nor  ethical,  only  amazingly  sexual. 

Among  the  commendable  features  are  the  following:  the 
recognition  of  the  grave  social  menace  of  venereal  diseases ; 
the  rejection  of  all  forms  of  promiscuous  intercourse;  the 
importance  of  preparing  children  for  adolescence  and 
parenthood;  the  value  of  modern  religion  in  meeting  the 
issue;  the  avoidance  of  the  coitus  intorruptus  in  marital  re- 
lations; the  importance  of  advising  individuals  rather  than 

260 


266  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

lecturing  to  audiences;  and  the  rejection  of  all  quack  liter- 
ature and  remedies. 

Migtily  objectionable  is  the  permission  of  "  auto-ere- 
thism"  (i.e.,  masturbation),  the  vulgar  frankness  with 
which  details  of  the  sex  life  are  presented,  and  the  method 
of  arriving  at  the  so-called  ethical  conclusions. 

One  of  a  dozen  statements  concerning  auto-erethism  is: 
"  If  the  patients  were  married  the  problem  was  settled,  if 
single  or  widowed,  a  solution  was  found  by  removing  the 
stigma  of  sin,  vice,  or  immorality  from  occasional  auto- 
erotic  relief  when  attempts  at  sublimation  were  inadequate  " 
(p.  271). 

If  I  quoted  passages  to  prove  the  obscene  character  of 
the  book,  which  prints  in  minutest  detail  the  erotic  confes- 
sions of  normal  and  abnormal  men  and  women,  it  would  not 
be  proper  for  this  magazine  to  circulate  through  the  mails. 
Never  has  ray  mind  had  such  a  prurient  bath,  and  I  have 
heard  Forel  lecture  and  read  Krafft-Ebing.  First,  I  re- 
gretted having  agreed  to  review  the  book,  and  then  that  I 
could  not  review  it  without  first  reading  it. 

The  method  of  arriving  at  the  result  that  masturbation  is 
not  injurious  is  that  the  middle-class  persons,  selected  for 
their  virtue,  who  answered  a  questionnaire,  admitted  the 
practice  but  denied  any  injurious  effects.  Did  they  not 
then  lose  self-respect.^  Were  they  not  uncomfortable  in 
the  presence  of  the  opposite  sex  }  Did  they  not  expend  the 
vital  fluid  that  the  physical  system  would  largely  have  ab- 
sorbed.^ Did  they  not  stimulate  unnaturally  the  secretion 
of  semen  by  mental  masturbation  before  the  act.^  What 
would  a  masturbator  call  an  injurious  effect.^  And  this  in 
the  name  of  biological  and  Spencerian  ethics! 

The  ideal  method  is  also  the  best;  absolute  continence 
until  marriage,  involving  purity  of  act,  word,  and  thought. 
Impurity  of  thought  is  weakness  in  the  central  citadel  of 
the  soul.  There  is  no  sex  necessity,  say  many  reputable 
physicians,  including  Professor  Howell  at  Johns  Hopkins. 
If  not,  permission  to  defile  soul  and  body  is  neither  rational, 
nor  ethical;  not  rational,  for  the  reason,  by  re-directing  at- 
tention, should  control  instinct;  not  ethical,  for  self-defile- 
ment is  against  conscience.  Right  physical  and  mental 
regimen  reduces  surplus  semen  to  a  minimum,  and  this  sur- 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS  267 

plus  finds  nature's  relief  in  sleep,  when,  as  Hawthorne  says, 
the  conscience  sleeps. 

The  author  was  born  in  1866.  The  preface  was  written 
at  43  (1909),  yet  for  some  reason  the  book  was  not  pub- 
lished till  1916.  The  author  is  a  physician,  superintendent 
of  Pine  Terrace,  and  is  one  of  President  G.  Stanley  Hall's 
pupils.  He  uses  and  approves  Freudianism,  in  a  modified 
form.  Woman  suffrage  is  rejected  as  inimical  to  woman's 
function.  The  book  is  loosely  and  unsystematically  writ- 
ten. On  page  325,  line  2,  "  peform  "  appears  instead  of 
"  perform."  Man  is  here  presented  not  so  much  a  rational 
animal  capable  of  self-control  with  a  sense  of  right  to  be 
respected  at  all  costs,  but  a  kind  of  barn-yard  cock  with 
one  hen,  without  respect  even  for  the  period  of  gestation. 
—  Literary  Editor,  American  Social  Hygiene  Association. 

My  critic  makes  an  admission  that  there  are  some 
good  things  in  the  book,  coupled  with  a  disposition  to 
misconstrue  meaning,  and  the  assertion  that  it  is  ob- 
scene in  its  language  and  immoral  in  its  teaching.  Of 
course  the  book  has  to  be  read  before  one  can  decide, 
and  opinions  are  so  different.  There  are  fifty  to  one 
whose  signed  statements,  personal  statements  and  liter- 
ary or  medical  criticisms  show  that  they  in  no  wise  con- 
sider the  book  obscene  or  of  immoral  doctrine.  If  one  is 
looking  for  obscenity,  suggestiveness  or  coarseness,  I 
would  ask  him  to  compare  my  critic's  last  sentence  with 
any  expression  of  mine  found  in  the  book.  When  I  read 
this  to  my  wife  who,  as  I  said  in  the  preface,  type-wrote 
the  entire  book  for  me,  she  said,  "  You  are  incapable  of 
expressing  yourself  with  any  such  vulgarity  and  coarse- 
ness as  is  shown  in  this  sentence."  She  also  said,  "  Peo- 
ple of  this  kind  think  that  because  there  is  pleasure  in 
sex,  and  a  natural  desire  for  it,  there  can  be  nothing 
right  or  good  in  it."  She  ought  to  know  something  of 
the  older  ideas,  for  she  was  a  minister's  daughter.  She 
still  plays  the  church  organ  and  sometimes  takes  even 


268  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

me  along  to  simulate  singing  in  the  choir.  Really, 
this  last  sentence,  aside  from  its  own  vulgarity,  entirely 
distorts  the  spirit  and  meaning  of  the  whole  book. 

It  is  something  of  a  paradox  that  a  journal  supposed 
to  be  devoted  to  social  welfare,  to  welcome  discussion 
and  investigation,  whose  readers  and  supporters  are 
usually  both  broad-minded  and  altruistic,  should  fur- 
nish a  criticism  more  narrow-minded,  more  severe,  and 
more  opposed  to  social  betterment  than  anything  that 
has  appeared  in  the  last  year  and  a  half,  in  the  lay  or 
medical  press.  Since  this  critic  is  anonymous,  he  may 
pardon  me  for  saying  that  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  his 
mind  is  perfectly  clean.  He  certainly  takes  the  method 
usually  used  to  camouflage  this  defect  by  prating  about 
the  uncleanness  of  others  in  a  way  thought  to  draw 
attention  from  one's  own  remissness.  I  would  not 
charge  that  he  is  consciously  aware  of  this,  any  more 
than  I  would  claim  that  the  Kaiser  is  aware  that  his 
precipitation  of  world  war  and  devastation  was  from 
motives  of  personal  fear  of  loss  of  power  and  personal 
injury,  rather  than  for  the  purpose  of  German  aggran- 
dizement ;  but  this  defence  reaction  is  well  known  to  all 
of  us  who  have  studied  the  human  soul,  and  Morton 
Prince  has  shown  it  in  a  masterly  way  in  his  Psychology 
of  the  Kaiser.  I  would  suggest  to  my  friend  the  read- 
ing of  this  little  book,  then  that  he  make  the  proper 
substitutions  and  see  where  the  analogies  will  lead  him, 
or  her,  if  the  critic  is  a  woman.  If  he  will  go  to  some 
modern  psychologist  and  cooperate  in  an  analysis  of  his 
own  mind,  he  will  learn  some  things,  hitherto  unsus- 
pected, which  may  temporarily  alarm  him  concerning 
his  own  "  holier  than  thou "  sort  of  personality.  I 
charitably  consider  that  his  present  unconscious  de- 
fences   are    against    early    fancied,    now    unconscious, 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS  269 

transgressions  of  some  kind.  Commonly,  however, 
there  are  unconscious  defences  against  the  mental  rav- 
ages of  known  deviations.  One  little  illustration  will 
suffice :  a  former  patient  of  mine  whose  instincts  were 
moral  and  religious  had  his  will  power  so  weakened  by 
mistaken  ideas  of  sex,  ideas  similar  to  my  critic's,  that 
he  proved  unfaithful  to  his  wife  and  became  immoral 
with  a  woman  associate,  who  also  had  correct  moral  and 
religious  instincts,  but  whose  strength  was  not  sufficient 
to  prevent  temporary  abdication  from  her  high  princi- 
ples. After  this  lapse,  these  two  people,  always  solicit- 
ous for  others,  always  conscientiously  active  in  church 
and  society,  redoubled  their  efforts  to  keep  people  right 
and  to  turn  people  from  wrong  to  right.  Neither  of 
these  delinquents  had  the  slightest  hypocritical  design. 
They  knew  not  why  they  made  these  extra  and  despe- 
rate efforts  toward  the  spiritual  and  social  betterment 
of  others.  They  had  committed  conscious  wrong  — 
there  was  an  unconscious  effort  to  compensate  for  this 
by  accomplishing  as  much  good  as  possible.  I  would 
suggest  to  such  critics  that  the  criticisms  would  be 
more  effective  if  more  judicial  and  more  readily  substan- 
tiated. Reason  is  better  than  vindictiveness,  emotion- 
alism, or  prejudice.  There  is  a  large  bod}^  of  men  and 
women  today  who  understand  better  than  I  the  defence 
reactions  to  which  I  have  alluded,  and  when  they  see  a 
particularly  virulent  attack  or  any  excessive  emotional 
frenzy  in  criticisms  of  this  kind,  they  smile  and  say, 
*'  Here  is  a  case  of  early  transgression  or  fancied  trans- 
gression, later  repressed  into  the  sub-conscious  and  now 
exhibiting  a  fear  or  defence  reaction ; "  or,  again, 
"  Here  is  a  case  of  conscious  transgression  with  an  un- 
conscious attempt  at  compensation."  They  attach 
little  significance  to  the  utterances  of  such  an  one  until 


270  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

he  has  been  subjected  to  a  thorough  psycho-analysis. 
Here  again,  the  individual  is  not  to  blame  but  the  fault 
is  in  the  error  of  early  thinking,  which  set  a  seal  of 
secrecy  and  prudish  reticence  on  those  intimate  facts  of 
our  lives  which  are  generally  not  unworthy  or  shameful 
unless  we  ourselves  make  them  so.  Frankness  and  hon- 
esty characterize  the  disclosures  from  the  sex  lives  of 
those  superior  men  and  women  who  form  the  bulk  of  my 
cases.  These  things  are  "  amazingly  sexual  "  only  to 
those  who  have  attempted  to  deny,  ignore,  or  proscribe 
sex.  The  results  of  this  latter  line  of  thinking  are  anal- 
ogous to  the  train  of  serious  symptoms,  familiar  to 
every  physician,  following  chronic  constipation  in  those 
whose  excessive  delicacy  and  extreme  refinement  have 
made  proper  attention  to  the  elimination  function  seem 
vulgar  and  nauseous. 

This  critic's  attitude  toward  the  erotic  experiences  of 
others  reminds  me  of  a  case  I  saw  recently.  A  man  who 
had  become  a  victim  of  the  alcohol  habit  and  who  wished 
to  be  treated,  sent  for  me  to  treat  him.  His  wife  was 
sick  at  the  time  and  unable  to  care  for  him.  His 
brother,  who  was  the  only  available  nurse,  said,  "  I  can- 
not attend  to  him  now  as  it  is  just  time  for  church,  and 
I  have  no  sympathy  for  him  any  way.  Why  doesn't  he 
stop  it  himself  without  treatment  the  way  I  did?  "  I 
asked,  "  How  long  did  you  drink? "  He  answered 
promptly,  "  Until  I  was  fifty  years  of  age  and  the  power 
of  God  saved  me."  The  picture  which  I  drew  of  his 
brother  continuing  an  unwilling  drunkard  another  fif- 
teen years  and  of  his  wife  passing  the  same  period  in 
misery  and  suffering,  waiting  for  the  providence  of 
God,  when  his  slight  sacrifice  might  at  once  remedy  the 
evil,  and  my  characterization  of  him  as  a  disgrace  to 
the  church,  a  narrow  and  selfish  egotist,  brought  unex- 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS  271 

pected  apology  and  recantation.  There  was  some  good 
in  this  man,  though  his  willingness  to  lie  supine  in  the 
"  everlasting  arms  "  and  the  comfortable  idea  that  faith 
without  works  was  sufficient  had  discolored  the  good  in 
him  past  recognition. 

If  this  man  who  criticizes  me  is  not  a  woman,  he  may 
be  like  the  only  one  of  my  male  cases  who  denied  all 
those  experiences  which  I  have  been  classed  as  obscene 
for  recording.  The  contemplation  of  these  biographies 
doubtless  furnished  the  medium  in  which  his  mind  "  had 
such  a  prurient  bath."  Otherwise,  he  is  like  our  man 
who  was  impatient  to  get  to  church  to  thank  God  for 
saving  him  at  fifty  from  the  identical  sin  which  his 
brother  was  struggling  alone  with  at  thirty-five. 

I  also  have  read  Forel  and  KrafFt-Ebing,  also  Bloch, 
Tarnowsky,  Roux,  Fournier,  Lidston,  Morrow,  Ellis, 
Moll,  Malchow,  Sturgis,  Hiihner,  as  a  preliminary  to 
my  investigations,  and  have  listened  to  Freud,  Jung, 
and  Ferenczi.  There  is  something  relevant  in  his  apol- 
ogy for  being  compelled  to  read  the  book  and  his  igno- 
rance of  much  of  its  contents.  He  speaks  of  persons 
answering  a  questionnaire  as  if  I  had  dealt  with 
strangers  or  men  of  straw.  He  will  find  it  stated  that 
practically  all  my  facts  were  obtained  through  confiden- 
tial interviews  with  people  who  were  well  known  to  me; 
very  few  of  the  cases  on  which  the  book  was  based  gave 
written  answers.  He  says  I  based  my  opinion  as  to 
injurious  effects  on  the  opinion  of  my  cases.  Though 
the  book  plainly  tells  him,  I  will  again  explain  how  I 
arrived  at  this  conclusion.  My  own  judgment  supple- 
mented by  the  opinion  of  the  community  as  to  a  per- 
son's morals,  health,  and  ability,  was  the  basis  of  my 
conclusions.  The  opinions  of  the  persons  themselves 
are  given  for  what  they  are  worth.     I  illustrate :  a  man 


272  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

at  sixty-two  was  worrying  excessively  over  the  injurious 
effects  of  practicing  masturbation  when  he  was  sixteen. 
He  had  raised  eleven  healthy  children,  was  then,  and  is 
now,  at  seventy-four,  a  church  deacon  in  deed  as  well  as 
in  name,  he  had  been  successful  in  business,  he  was  the 
central  figure  in  his  community.  I  saw  no  reasons  for 
granting  his  claim  as  to  injurious  results,  and  he  saw 
none  after  some  early  bugbears  were  removed  from  his 
mind.  Another  man  of  sixty  had  worried  much  all  his 
life  and  felt  that  he  had  suffered  much  harm,  yet  he  had 
never  been  sick  and  had  had  a  very  enviable  business  and 
literary  career.  Any  one  of  sense  would  have  realized 
that  his  claim  that  he  had  been  injured  by  masturbation 
was  preposterous.  A  woman  of  thirty  and  another  of 
fifty,  each  with  healthy  families,  each  happy  and  in  per- 
fect health,  both  moral  and  social  pillars  in  their  com- 
munity, could  conceive  of  no  harmful  results  that  had 
come  to  them  from  former  auto-erotism,  neither  could  I ; 
but  a  woman  of  fifty  who  worried  herself  into  a  grave 
neurosis  on  account  of  auto-erotism,  and  recovered  com- 
pletely in  a  few  weeks'  time,  with  nothing  but  mere  talk 
for  treatment,  seemed  equally  free  finally  to  herself  and 
me  from  any  injurious  effects.  In  her  case,  fifteen 
years  has  helped  to  strengthen  this  judgment.  The 
above  is  my  method  of  deciding  as  to  the  harm  of  auto- 
erotism, and  the  careful  reader  will  have  no  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  this  from  the  book  itself. 

The  critic's  questions  as  to  the  loss  of  self-respect, 
etc.,  merit  a  little  attention.  Certainly  they  lost  self- 
respect,  any  one  can  read  it  there  in  their  own  words. 
How  could  they  help  it,  after  reading  the  literature 
which  I  criticize  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  Extracts  from 
the  Popular  Teaching  in  Sex  Matters,"  in  that  book 
and  in  the  chapter  entitled  "  An  Incipient  Philosophy  " 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS  273 

in  this  volume.  They  certainly  were  uncomfortable  in 
the  presence  of  the  other  sex,  and  of  course  they  did 
expend  the  vital  fluid  if  they  were  males,  and  if  females, 
there  were  similar  occurrences;  but  when  he  (or  she) 
asks  if  these  fluids  would  not  have  been  otherwise  largely 
absorbed  by  the  physical  system,  it  is  another  question, 
and  starts  back  with  Hippocrates  and  Galen.  There 
are  many  theories  that  the  system  absorbs  unexpended 
semen  with  beneficial  results,  and  undoubtedly  there  is 
truth  in  this,  to  a  certain  extent.  The  facts  are,  that 
emissions  occur  regularly  in  many  continent  males,  and 
voluptuous  dreams  with  orgasm  just  as  regularly  in 
many  continent  females.  After  these  experiences  those 
individuals  who  have  passed  the  alarm  stage  are  at  their 
best  physically  and  mentally,  just  as  married  men  and 
women  are  at  their  best  when  moderate  regular  inter- 
course is  indulged  in.  Some  people  do  not  have  the 
nocturnal  experiences  at  all,  or  with  any  regularity, 
even  some  who  are  both  continent  and  virile.  These 
are,  as  a  rule,  in  great  discomfort,  feel  inadequate  and 
incompetent,  are  confused  and  erratic  until  they  marry 
or  have  some  sexual  relief.  Practically  all  people  of 
both  sexes  are  in  better  health,  more  moral  and  more 
efficient  after  marriage.  On  the  other  hand,  excessive 
intercourse  or  masturbation  at  times  seems  to  produce 
weakness,  instability,  and  incompetence,  the  same  con- 
dition that  we  find  in  those  who  are  born  with  little 
virility,  or  in  those  of  strong  virility  after  long-con- 
tinued, excessive  restraint. 

"  Did  they  not  stimulate  unnaturally  the  secretion 
of  semen  by  mental  masturbation  before  the  act.''  " 
This  expression  is  hardly  intelligible,  as  it  involves 
several  questions.  There  is  a  species  of  masturbation 
called  psychic-Onanism  in  which  the  whole  process  is 


274  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

mental.  In  ordinary  masturbation  and  in  intercourse 
the  process  is  partly  mental  and  partly  physical.  De- 
liberate attempts  to  fill  the  mind  with  erotic  pictures  by 
reading,  by  indecent  shows  and  by  the  aid  of  the  imagi- 
nation, will  increase  the  production  of  semen,  but  unless 
there  is  already  some  accumulation  of  semen  strong 
effort  is  required  to  fix  the  mind  on  erotic  subjects. 
This  effort  is  seldom  made  except  by  those  of  a  low  or 
lascivious  turn  of  mind.  People  of  good  purposes 
strive  rather  to  keep  their  minds  from  these  matters. 
This  is  impossible  for  those  whose  minds  are  constantly 
burdened  with  shame  for  having  practiced,  and  with  fear 
of  the  results  of  masturbation.  Among  the  people  I 
have  dealt  with  I  should  say  that  nine-tenths  of  the  un- 
natural accumulation  of  semen  and  other  sex  products 
came  from  this  cause  and  perhaps  one-tenth  from  their 
conscious  efforts  in  that  direction.  Sex  excitement  and 
erotic  imagery  result  just  as  surely  from  worry  and 
fear  about  sex  as  they  do  from  deliberate,  sensuous  day- 
dreaming, and  the  worry  is  ever  present,  while  the  imag- 
ination is  only  reinforced  or  determined  in  this  direction 
when  already  there  is  some  physical  stimulus  behind  it. 
I  have  repeatedly  stated  in  the  book  referred  to  and  in 
this  that  sex  excitement,  erotic  images,  production  of 
semen,  etc.,  were  all  reduced  about  one-half  in  the  ordi- 
nary individual  when  the  mind  was  freed  from  the  preva- 
lent shame,  fear,  and  uncertainty  in  regard  to  mastur- 
bation. 

The  sex  excitement  may  appear  to  originate  on  the 
physical  side  or  on  the  mental,  but  after  its  occurrence, 
either  acts  as  a  stimulant  to  the  other,  but  I  believe  that 
the  primary  stimulus  which  leads  to  excitement  origi- 
nates in  the  accumulation  of  sex  elements  in  the  physical 
organs. 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS  275 

In  spite  of  the  most  idealistic  attitude  and  a  proper 
fear  of  the  venereal  consequences  of  promiscuity,  abso- 
lute continence  till  marriage  seldom,  if  ever,  occurs. 
This  universal  deviation  from  the  standard  of  ancient 
idealism  may  be  ascribed  to  willful  departure  or  to  the 
compulsion  of  nature.  With  my  evidence  at  hand  and 
a  firm  belief  in  man's  general  effort  for  right  conduct,  I 
am  forced  to  believe  the  latter.  True,  man}^  reputable 
physicians  say  there  is  no  sex  necessity,  but  just  as 
reputable  ones,  and  I  think  many  more  of  them,  say 
there  is.  I  know  of  but  one  way  of  settling  the  ques- 
tion, and  that  is  by  a  comprehensive  examination  of 
the  inner  lives  of  men  and  women.  I  have  devoted  some 
time  to  this  pursuit  for  many  years.  Professor  Howell, 
whom  he  quotes  as  one  of  the  greatest  authorities,  is  all 
that  can  be  claimed  for  him  as  an  expert  in  the  labora- 
tory teaching  and  didactic  teaching  of  physiolog}^,  and, 
as  a  human  personality,  there  is  none  more  capable  of 
inspiring  the  deepest  admiration.  As  his  pupil,  I  re- 
member him  as  most  kindly  and  courteous,  entirely  un- 
affected and  yet,  though  very  young,  a  past-master  in 
all  physiological  technicalities ;  but  I  remember  him 
more  especially  as  a  very  young  man,  taking  his  charm- 
ing young  wife  and  beautiful  baby  almost  daily  for  an 
airing  in  the  suburban  part  of  a  certain  university  town. 
My  wife  and  I,  also  youthful,  were  expecting  our  first 
baby  at  about  this  time.  Both  he  and  I  have  probably 
lived  normally  and  happily  since  that  time,  thus  admit- 
ting sex  advisability  at  least.  He,  from  long  experience 
with  scientific  technicalities,  from  books,  experiences, 
and  men  argues  that  there  is  no  sex  necessity.  I,  from 
a  large  experience  with  men,  and  from  some  slight  study 
of  books,  science  and  myself,  argue  that  there  is.     I 


276  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

should  be  glad  to  see  his  evidence,  and  I  know  he  would 
treat  mine  courteously. 

No !  The  book  was  not  published  for  many  years 
after  it  was  written.  There  were  two  reasons.  First 
I  disliked  myself,  and  my  wife  disliked  to  have  me  ap- 
pear antagonistic  to  that  ultra-idealism  in  which  we 
were  both  nurtured  (though  any  intelligent  reader  will 
perceive  that  there  is  no  real  antagonism  between  those 
beliefs  and  my  present  doctrines).  The  second  reason 
was  that,  when  I  did  become  convinced  that  publication 
was  a  duty,  publishers  were  not  then  convinced  that  the 
public  would  deal  kindly  with  such  innovations. 

Finally,  I  think  this  critic  may  be  a  woman,  for  three 
reasons :  first,  my  wife  and  daughter-in-law  said  right 
away  that  this  critic  was  a  woman  ;  second,  the  sentence, 
"  Never  has  my  mind  had  such  a  prurient  bath,"  re- 
minded me  of  a  woman's  criticism  of  Dr.  Hall's  Adoles- 
cence, which  I  quoted  on  pages  335  and  336  of  Rational 
Sex  Ethics;  third,  after  what  was  evidently  a  very  su- 
perficial reading  of  the  book,  the  critic  takes  the  trouble 
to  note  that  on  page  325,  line  two,  the  letter  r  is  omitted 
from  the  word  perform.  Now,  my  dear  critic,  I  am 
sorry  that  I  cannot  mete  out  adequate  justice  to  the 
offenders.  My  wife,  who  read  much  of  the  proof,  has 
already  been  severely  lectured,  and  if  I  could  locate  the 
compositor  who  committed  this  glaring  outrage,  he  (or 
she)  should  be  subjected  to  the  severest  castigation. 

In  justice  to  myself,  I  think  it  proper  to  add  here 
three  or  four  reviews  which  have  appeared  in  medical 
or  lay  journals,  whose  standing  needs  no  comment  of 
mine.  I  certainly  appreciate  their  kindly  words,  which 
were  more  than  I  had  a  right  to  expect. 


CRITICISMS  AND  ANSWERS  277 

In  the  present  flpod  of  literature  on  sex  topics,  it  is  re- 
fresking  to  find  an  author  who  writes  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  general  practitioner  and  who  has  endeavored 
to  secure  his  material  from  normal  persons  rather  than  from 
the  abiiormal,  the  eccentric  or  the  criminal  classes.  Dr. 
Robie  seeks  to  discuss  some  of  the  perplexing  problems  of 
sex  relations  in  a  common  sense  way  without  obscuring  his 
meaning  by  the  complex  terminology  and  fantastic  theories 
of  many  writers  in  this  field.  He  is  even  able  to  discuss 
psfychoanalysis  dispassionately  and,  without  going  to  the 
extremes  of  the  Freudian  enthusiasts,  to  recognize  the  value 
of  many  of  Freud's  theories.  The  numerous  case  histories 
given  are  well  selected  as  illustrations,  and  in  many  cases 
will  be  recognized  as  analogous  to  those  encountered  by 
most  practicing  physicians.  While  not  intended  to  be  either 
complete  or  final,  Dr.  Robie's  book  can  hardly  be  over- 
looked by  those  interested  in  this  subject. —  Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association,  August  4,  1917. 

A  Physiological  and  Psychological  Study  of  the  Sex  Lives 
of  Normal  Men  and  Women,  with  Suggestions  for  a  Ra- 
tional Sex  Hygiene,  by  W.  F.  Robie,  A.B.,  M.D.,  Superin- 
tendent Pine  Terrace,  Baldwinville,  Mass.,  sometime  fellow 
at  Clark  University,  Boston:  Richard  G.  Badger,  pp.  356, 
$3.50  net. 

This  is  a  compact,  handy  volume  of  convenient  size  to 
slip  into  a  handbag  or  overcoat  pocket.  The  style  is  easy 
and  the  author  is  forceful  and  original,  showing  a  wide 
knowledge  of  the  subject  and  a  keen  appreciation  of  evi- 
dence. 

There  is  no  question  that  the  sexual  function  is,  next  to 
nutrition,  the  oldest  and  most  difficult  problem  of  human 
relationship.  Prostitution,  polygamy,  promiscuity,  purity 
and  pollution  are  yet  indeterminate  factors  in  the  problem 
of  civilization.  It  is  refreshing  to  find  a  writer  willing  to 
take  up  the  subject  on  the  evidence  presented  by  human  ex- 
perience, accepting  the  demonstrated  truths  of  science  and 
giving  no  undue  weight  to  theological  dogma  and  philosoph- 
ical speculation.  It  is  a  work  of  profound  interest  on  a 
fundamentally  important  subject,  and  is  very  properly  "  for 
sale  only  to  members  of  the  medical  and  legal  professions." 
—  Journal  of  the  National  Medical  Association. 


^78  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

The  word  "  rational  "  in  the  title  of  this  book  is  relevant, 
in  the  first  place,  to  the  method  employed.  The  discussion 
is  based  upon  an  inductive  study  of  material  obtained  in 
part  through  the  author's  medical  experience  and  in  part 
through  questionnaires  filled  out  by  "  what  is  considered 
the  better  part  of  the  middle  class."  The  questionnaires 
seem  to  have  been  in  many  cases  supplemented  by  personal 
interviews.  The  outcome  of  the  inquiry  indicates  a  far 
greater  frequency  in  this  class  of  auto-erotism  and  a  less 
amount  of  promiscuous  relations  than  has  ordinarily  been 
supposed.  The  author  is  convinced  also  that  the  evil  con- 
sequences of  auto-erotism  have  been  greatly  exaggerated  and 
tliat  the  fear  of  evil  consequences  has  frequently  been  the 
worst  factor. 

In  the  second  place  the  term  "  rational  "  might  be  ap- 
plied to  the  recommendations  of  the  author,  if  we  under- 
stand by  rational  what  is  removed  from  extreme.  While 
opposing  utterly  promiscuous  sex  relations,  the  author  em- 
phasizes the  positive  values  of  vigorous  sex  life.  His  clin- 
ical advice  to  many  persons  both  normal  and  neurotic,  in 
which  he  has  employed  methods  similar  to  those  of  Freudian 
analysis,  seems  to  have  yielded  highly  beneficial  results. — 
International  Journal  of  Ethics,  January,  1918. 


n 

RATIONAL  SEX  ETHICS  FOR  MEN  IN  THE 
ARMY  AND  NAVY 

It  is  dil^cult  for  one  to  consider  even  briefly  ordinary 
questions,  or  even  fundamental  instincts,  in  these  days 
of  world  strife.  The  feudal  despot  of  Potsdam,  daring 
the  abyss  of  utter  destruction  for  the  sole  avowed  pur- 
pose of  making  the  world  subject  to  the  caprice  of  a 
madman,  threatens  all  that  centuries  of  heartbreak  and 
bloodshed  have  taught  us  of  democracy  and  the  golden 
rule.  Nietzsche's  accursed  psychopathic  philosophy, 
exemplified  in  Bernhardi  and  put  in  practice  by  Wil- 
liam and  the  Potsdam  Government,  challenges  all  comers 
and  disdains  all  traditions  of  Pitt  and  Gladstone,  Wash- 
ington and  Lafayette,  Garibaldi  and  Lincoln.  The 
haggard  remnants  of  Belgium,  Servia,  Armenia  and 
Roumania,  disrupted  Russia  and  suffering  Italy  are  be- 
fore our  eyes.  The  flower  of  the  young  manhood  of 
England  and  France  is  being  fed  to  the  Moloch  of 
Prussian  Militancy  and  autocratic  egoism.  Men  from 
every  calling  are  starting  forth  with  the  godspeed  and 
prayers  of  their  women.  The  older  men  and  the  non- 
combatants  are  trying  to  get  into  the  game,  each  and 
all  eager  to  serve  to  the  utmost  in  the  unavoidable,  last 
Titanic  struggle  of  light  with  darkness,  of  liberty  and 
civilization  with  coercion  and  barbarism.  All  eff"orts 
are  united  to  win  the  war  which  must  be  decisively  won 
for  justice,  decency,  progress   and  happiness  for  the 

generations  yet  to  be. 

279 


280  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Still,  this  Nemesis  of  war  and  destruction  will  not 
leave  half  so  many  scars,  we  all  know  very  well,  as  will 
the  incidental  suppression  and  misdirection  as  a  direct 
result  of  war's  exigencies  of  the  most  fundamental  of  all 
instincts,  the  sex  instinct.  We  all  dread,  for  ourselves 
and  others,  the  temporary  and  permanent  separations, 
the  heartbreaks  and  longings,  the  blighted  homes  and 
solitary  lives,  which  inevitably  must  result  in  this  coun- 
try, as  have  already  resulted  in  others,  on  account  of 
the  war. 

Along  with  all  the  ideal  in  family  life,  in  art,  in  reli- 
gion, and  in  ordinary  aspiration,  we  must  consider  the 
foundation  of  all  these  things,  the  physical,  material 
side.  Everything  has  a  subjective  and  objective,  an 
ideal  and  a  material  side ;  and  the  sex  instinct  is  no  ex- 
ception. Our  army  is  fighting  for  those  transcenden- 
tal, immutable  principles  of  the  idealist  —  freedom, 
equality,  happiness ;  but  this  were  impossible  did  we 
not  consider  the  physical  and  feed,  clothe,  arm,  equip 
and  train  our  boys.  We  inevitably  lose  some  in  battle, 
more  from  unpreventable  disease,  but  more  yet  from 
ignorance  or  diffidence  concerning  the  laws  of  life. 
Nothing  calls  for  a  calmer,  saner  thinking  than  for  ways 
and  means  to  prevent  and  minimize  the  vast  inroads 
made  or  to  be  made  into  our  sexual  conventions  and 
moral  ideals  by  the  transient  or  permanent  changes 
necessitated  by  this  world  war.  But  how  can  we  seek 
remedies  if  we  do  not  know  the  disease?  How  can  we 
discuss  freely  and  intelligently  the  tremendous  sex  prob- 
lems which  now  confront  us,  if  we  have  an  excessive 
prudishness,  an  almost  complete  ignorance  and  an  in- 
tense fear  and  disgust  concerning  the  whole  subject.'' 

Preliminary    to    any    full    and    complete    discussion 
should  come  a  plain  statement  of  some  things  incom- 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  281 

pletely  comprehended  or  entirely  unrecognized.  The 
sexual  instinct  is  primal  and  came  long  before  the  ideals 
of  love,  music,  painting  and  all  the  rest  of  those  things 
which  have  grown  out  of  it,  and  wliich  are  now  placed 
before  and  above  it.  This  may  be  well  enough  if  it  is 
not  done  to  the  complete  ignoring  or  entire  exclusion  of 
the  original  force  which  is  always  present. 

The  sexual  instinct  is  much  older  than  man,  and 
arose,  as  some  suppose,  from  tension  or  pressure  of 
semen  or  fluids  in  testes  or  glands,  leading  to  a  desire 
for  relief  or  evacuation,  similar  to  one  for  urina- 
tion. Others  suppose  that  accumulation  of  semen  or 
other  sex  elements  stimulated  spinal  centers,  thus  caus- 
ing sex  excitement. 

Nowadays,  we  all  know  that  not  only  organic  im- 
pulses to  evacuate  and  spinal  excitation  of  the  organs 
themselves,  but  psychic  imagery  and  craving  always 
accompany  or  are  part  of  the  sex  instinct  and  impulse. 
All  normal  and  most  abnormal  human  beings  possess 
this  instinct.  It  begins  somewhat  in  the  earliest  child- 
hood, increases  at  puberty,  is  strongest  through  young 
adult  and  middle  life,  and  declines  gradually  in  normal 
old  age,  commonly  having  some  slight  expression  up  to 
the  age  of  eighty  or  ninety  years. 

The  traditional,  ecclesiastic  view  saw  this  instinct  as 
a  self-sought  depravity  rather  than  the  mainspring  of 
all  life.  The  individual's  power  of  control  was  thought 
to  be  absolute,  but  love  of  pleasure  and  self-indulgence 
led  to  error.  Absolute  continence  was  thought  to  be 
easy,  at  any  rate  possible,  at  any  time  of  life,  in  either 
sex,  under  all  conditions.  Any  infraction  of  this  rule, 
either  in  promiscuous  relations  or  in  auto-erotism,  until 
the  church  united  the  man  and  woman,  was  regarded  as 
criminal,  vicious,  and  disgraceful ;  though  after  mar- 


282  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

riage,  much  license  was  considered  necessary  and  any 
amount  permissible  between  the  contracting  parties. 
Auto-erotism  was  considered  more  destructive,  vicious, 
and  disgraceful  than  promiscuous  relations.  These 
ideas  are  obsessions  in  the  minds  of  most  good  people 
today,  though  there  is  now  pretty  general  agreement 
among  the  educated  and  experienced,  that  the  opposite 
of  most  of  these  old  notions  is  true. 

The  sexual  instinct  within  us  is  an  unquenchable  force 
which  leads  in  its  proper  use,  to  the  highest  ideals  and 
accomplishments.  Even  health,  happiness  and  longev- 
ity depend  largely  on  its  proper  use.  Many  students 
of  this  subject  do  not  think  control  or  continence  for 
any  long  period  is  possible.  Some  of  the  most  serious 
and  thoughtful  do  not  consider  it  advisable  in  the  best 
interests  of  the  race.  I  quote  from  Dr.  S.  Herbert's 
book  on  Physiology  and  Psychology  of  Sex  (Pub.  A.  & 
C.  Black,  Ltd.,  6  Soho  Sq.,  London,  '17,  pp.  120  and 
121): 

"  Instead  of  asking  the  question  whether  abstinence 
is  possible,  it  would  be  much  more  pertinent  to  ask 
whether,  if  possible,  it  would  be  good.  .  .  .  Holding  up 
too  long  love's  vitalizing  power,  may  lay  barren  the 
whole  personality.  Abstinence,  then,  which  does  not 
allow  for  the  natural  growth  of  the  erotic  emotions,  far 
from  being  a  true  ideal,  must  be  condemned  at  best  as 
an  '  empty  virtue.'  Indeed,  the  idea  of  sexual  absti- 
nence is  an  ill-conceived  notion  which  cannot  be  sus- 
tained either  on  physiological  or  on  spiritual  grounds. 
.  .  .  The  sex  instinct  is  as  natural  as  any  other  funda- 
mental human  instinct.  .  .  .  The  erotic  emotions  form 
the  proper  basis  of  even  the  noblest  and  purest  love. 
We  cannot  starve  the  one  without,  at  the  same  time, 
preventing   the   blossoming   of   the   other.   .  .  .  Conti- 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  283 

nence,  instead  of  aiming  to  miss  love,  should  rather  be  a 
disciplined  cultivation  of  love.  It  is  self-control  which 
forms  the  central  idea  of  chastity.  ...  A  sane  use  of 
the  gifts  given  us  by  Nature,  in  sex  matters  as  much  as 
in  other  relations  of  life,  is  the  only  wholesome  rule  of 
conduct." 

Promiscuous  relations  are  known  to  result  in  the 
dread  diseases,  syphilis,  chanchroid  and  gonorrhoea. 
They  also  encourage  departures  from  our  wisely 
adopted  monogamic  custom  which  with  proper  fostering 
ought  to  become  an  instinct  of  the  race.  Masturbation, 
or  auto-erotism,  is  now  known  and  stated  by  all  experi- 
enced physicians  to  be  harmless,  at  least  when  moder- 
ately practiced.  Epilepsy,  insanity  and  all  other  dis- 
eases are  now  known  never  to  have  been  caused  by  it. 

What  relation,  you  say,  has  all  this  to  you  and  me.'' 
Why  do  I,  in  the  midst  of  numerous  obligations  to  fam- 
ily and  nation,  sit  down  at  odd  moments  and  try  to  rea- 
son sanely  with  you  and  try  to  give  you  a  true  per- 
spective in  sex  matters?  Why  do  I  try  to  make  you 
understand  the  sex  instinct  as  it  really  is,  what  it  means 
for  all  of  us,  not  what  some  well-meaning,  ignorant, 
Utopia-minded  theorist  or  religionist  of  old  thought  it 
would  be  wise  for  it  to  be.'' 

I  repeat  some  things  over  and  over  to  bring  home 
to  you  the  present  need  of  clear,  honest,  practical 
thoughts  and  words,  and  why,  now  if  never  before,  every 
one  should  give  some  concentrated  thought  toward  solv- 
ing the  problems  arising  out  of  the  sex  instinct.  What 
will  it  profit  us  to  win  this  war  for  democracy,  to  estab- 
lish those  American  principles  and  institutions  which 
all  of  us  are  willing  to  sacrifice  or  die  for ;  if  they  are  to 
be  the  inheritance  of  a  barren  world?  We  make  sacri- 
fices for  children  and  children's  children.     We  shudder 


284»  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

to  think  of  the  young  men  who  will  not  come  home  to 
beget  children,  and  we  sorrow  for  the  young  women  who 
will  not  be  mothers ;  but  we  all  know,  beyond  a  perad- 
venture,  that  this  necessary  sacrifice  is  small,  this  grief 
is  negligible  in  comparison  with  the  sorrow,  distress  and 
destruction  attendant  upon  other  tragedies.  Countless 
men  will  return  corrupted,  diseased  and  impotent. 
Countless  women  will  be  prepared  for  the  surgeon's 
knife,  made  helpless  invalids,  and  left  forever  barren  to 
lead  henceforth  lives  of  shame  and  misery. 

Syphilis  and  gonorrhoea,  the  sport  of  mediaeval  Eu- 
rope, the  anxiety  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the 
Nemesis  of  future  generations !  Again,  sexual  desire 
or  instinct  among  those  of  us  who  are  striving  to  be 
pure  and  above  reproach,  in  the  last  century,  unques- 
tionably has  brought  more  human  shipwreck,  more  men- 
tal and  neurotic  disease  on  men  and  women  than  alco- 
holism or  perhaps  than  all  other  causes  put  together. 
We  have  kept  our  heads  buried  in  the  sand.  What  will 
happen  when  thousands,  yes,  tens  of  thousands,  of  the 
most  intimate  of  human  relations,  meditated  or  consum- 
mated, are  rudely  dissevered  by  the  blast  of  the  war 
trumpet?  Male  infidelity  has  been  a  tremendous  prob- 
lem and  a  great  sorrow  to  the  moralist,  to  the  altruist, 
and  even  to  the  sinner.     Wliat  of  the  future.'' 

Nervous  and  hysterical  women  have  begun  to  be  a 
threatening  cloud  on  our  horizon,  and  I  say  to  you 
authoritatively  that  worry,  fear,  or  desire,  or  some  dis- 
turbance relative  to  the  sex  instinct  has  been  the  caus^ 
of  the  infirmity  in  most  of  these  women  who,  all  honor 
to  them,  are  usually  the  best  and  the  purest  that  bless 
the  earth.  If  you  hesitate  to  follow  me,  digest  the  fact 
that  seldom,  if  ever,  does  a  prostitute  have  ordinary 
nervous  trouble.     On  the  other  hand,  nervoua  women 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  «85 

are  almost  invariably  pure-minded,  and  often  become 
neurotic  from  being  too  pure-minded.  I  have  known 
many  just  such  cases.  If  now  nervous  women  are 
almost  a  menace  to  our  national  health,  for  the  rea- 
sons given,  what  will  you  say  and  what  will  you  think 
when  you  look  into  the  future  of  homes  broken  up,  of 
sweethearts  separated,  and  with  many  a  youth's  day- 
dream forever  a  ■will  o'  the  wisp? 

We  have  come  to  the  point  where  all  must  study  the 
practical  side,  whether  we  are  ministers,  doctors,  lay- 
men, wives,  mothers,  or  sweethearts.  We  no  longer  can 
conscientiously  put  these  things  aside  and  wait  for  a 
"  more  convenient  season."  Within  a  week  I  have 
talked  with  officers  in  the  army,  with  members  of  the 
clergy,  with  business  men,  with  mothers  of  boys  in  the 
service.  All  agree  that  everything  legitimate,  both  on 
the  spiritual  and  physical  sides,  must  be  done  to  safe- 
guard our  young  men  in  training  and  at  the  front 
against  the  desires,  temptations  and  seductions  which 
beset  their  leisure  hours,  if  we  are  to  have  a  sound  race 
of  men  and  women  after  their  return.  I  do  not  under- 
estimate the  spiritual  or  religious  side,  and  as  a  clergy- 
man told  me  recently,  it  will  be  a  great  help.  It  kept 
him  from  women,  but  he  admitted  that  it  did  not  keep 
him  entirely  free  from  conscious  incontinence.  I  am 
free  to  admit  the  same  truth. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  a  tremendous  power  for  good,  and 
we  are  doing  all  we  can  for  it.  It  will  give  comfort, 
home-life,  and  amusement  to  the  boys ;  but  though  it 
reduce  desire,  keep  somewhat  from  tempting  situations, 
and  direct  the  mind  into  healthy  channels,  it  will  not 
entirely  kill  one  of  our  strongest  fundamental  instincts. 

If  anything  is  likely  to  do  this,  we  had  better  now 


286  FURTHER  IN\TESTIGATIONS 

humble  ourselves  to  the  Kaiser;  for  a  eunuch  has  no 
sense  of  right  or  justice,  and  will  not  fight  for  principle. 
A  man  without  the  sex  instinct  will  not  fight  at  all,  but 
will  run  like  a  sheep.  We  have  some  sheep  here,  but 
they  will  not  be  with  the  boys  in  France.  The  Salva- 
tion Army,  the  Red  Cross,  the  Knights  of  Columbus, 
and  many  other  organizations,  many  far-sighted  chap- 
lains, some  sterling  officers  tried  in  the  fire  and  not 
found  wanting,  will  help  to  preserve  our  citizen  army. 
They,  however,  will  be  but  a  drop  in  the  bucket,  when 
even  now  thousands  are  invalided  home  or  incapaci- 
tated, not  from  wounds  on  the  fields  of  honor,  not  from 
the  natural  diseases  of  camp  life,  not  sterile  from 
mumps,  but  from  syphilis  and  gonorrhoea  —  the  pox 
and  clap  of  the  vernacular  —  the  bane  of  civilization, 
more  destructive  than  bullets  for  any  army. 

I  make  a  plea  to  every  red-blooded  man,  to  heed  the 
adjuration  of  one  of  old  to  "  think  on  these  things." 
When  you  have  thought,  read  and  meditated ;  when  you 
have  sloughed  off  the  theory  of  the  ancients ;  and  when 
you  have  absorbed  the  scientific  dictum  of  modern  biol- 
ogy and  the  common  sense  philosophy  of  honest,  pro- 
gressive men ;  then  "  act  in  the  living  present,  heart 
within  and  God  o'erhead."  Let  no  false  modesty  assail 
you,  let  no  consideration  of  misinterpreted  motives  deter 
you !  Think  of  yourself  as  you  are,  stripped  of  your 
shame,  secretiveness  and  prudery.  Think  of  yourself 
as  separated  from  wife  or  sweetheart,  away  from  home, 
trained  to  greatest  physical  efficiency,  with  periods  of 
the  most  strenuous  work  and  exertion,  with  the  extreme 
nerve  tension  that  must  accompany  night  alarms, 
screaming  shells,  falling  comrades,  friends  captured, — 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  «87 

all  this  alternating  with  short  periods  of  rest  and  relax- 
ation, freedom  from  responsibility,  warmth,  and  abun- 
dant food. 

You  all  show  plainly  n©w,  I  see  it  every  day  under 
the  veneer,  what  you  choose  to  insult  by  calling  animal 
nature.  (We  will  not  quarrel  over  the  indignities 
heaped  upon  the  force  which  is  the  source  of  all  life  and 
all  that  is  sweet  and  pure  and  beautiful  in  life.)  Deli- 
cious strawberries,  eggs  for  the  epicure's  breakfast, 
pork  at  any  price, —  all  come,  when  you  think  of  it,  from 
foulest  sources, —  if  you  look  at  it  in  that  way.  But 
"  handsome  is  as  handsome  does,"  and  I  fancy  that  if 
inanimate  things  were  animate,  and  consciousness  did 
originate  in  or  below  the  very  clods  of  earth,  the  dung 
in  the  sty  and  the  unaesthetic  hen  have  all  rejoiced  at 
their  products  and  themselves, —  necessities  and  bless- 
ings to  man. 

If  you  feel  and  exhibit  your  self-styled  carnality  now, 
what  would  you  feel  and  show  under  the  above  pictured 
conditions?  I  know  well  what  in  time  my  own  condition 
would  be,  and  I,  from  the  supposed  placidity  of  over 
fifty,  look  back  on  a  life  of  unusual  strenuosity.  In 
early  years  I  experienced  the  usual  trials  and  failures 
of  the  ordinary  youth  striving  to  be  continent  and  deter- 
mined at  all  hazards  to  avoid  promiscuity.  Not  even 
since  marriage  could  I  stay  from  home  several  months 
at  a  time,  as  I  have  on  different  occasions,  without  suf- 
fering extreme  punishment.  Oh  no,  nor  could  you,  my 
brother  man,  if  you  have  within  you  red  blood  or  genesic 
glands  such  as  would  make  you  acceptable  as  a  soldier. 
I  talk  plainly,  do  I  ?  Perhaps  so,  but  you  all  know 
that  it  is  "  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but 
the  truth."     Any  of  you  who  do  not  know  this  to  be 


288  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

true,  deserve  the  pity,  not  the  contempt  of  all  good, 
strong,  virile  men  and  women. 

Are  these  truths  something  of  which  to  be  ashamed, 
or  to  be  proud?  Could  we  win  the  war  without  the 
optimism  and  vigor  of  sex?  What  man  would  face  suf- 
fering and  death  if  not  for  home,  women,  and  children? 
What  woman  would  send  a  man  forth  cheerfully  if  not 
for  home  and  all  that  home  means?  You  know,  deep 
down,  that  these  are  the  things  to  be  proud  of  in  man 
or  woman.  You  are  beginning  to  know  that  it  is  not 
beneath  your  dignity  and  mine  to  study  and  understand 
them.  You  will  agree  with  me  that  man  can  arrive  at 
"  full-orbed  perfection  "  only  by  proper  knowledge  of 
these  primal  and  positive,  most  deeply  implanted,  most 
necessary  and  most  pleasure-fraught  gifts  of  an  all-wise 
Creator. 

What  shall  I,  a  father,  tell  my  son  in  the  army? 
First,  what  should  or  could  I  do  in  his  place?  What 
shall  you,  a  husband  in  the  army,  tell  your  wife  at 
home?  Remember  first,  her  hunger  for  you  after  long 
absences, —  a  hunger  which  you  know  was  at  times  more 
intense  even  than  yours  for  her  through  the  years  you 
have  been  together. 

A  friend,  the  other  day,  asked  a  man  who  had  two 
sons  in  the  army  if  he  were  worrying  for  fear  that  they 
would  be  maimed  or  killed.  "  No,"  he  said,  "  that's  the 
least  of  my  worries,  that  would  be  inevitable,  in  the  line 
of  duty  and  with  all  honor,  but  I  fear  something  infi- 
nitely worse."     The  man  was  not  a  doctor  either. 

Thousands  of  fathers  and  mothers  have  the  same, 
identical  fears  today.  The  necessary  sacrifices  of  this 
war  are  appalling ;  but  the  boys  step  out  with  readiness, 
and  we  follow  up  their  efforts  with  resolution  and  cheer- 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  289 

fulness.  But  the  unnecessary  depopulation,  the  blinded, 
the  halt,  the  maimed,  from  avoidable  venereal  disease 
give  us  all  a  shudder  to  think  of. 

Honestly,  though  I  know  that  all  are  human  and 
likely  to  err,  that  the  seductress  may  get  at  some  of 
mine  in  an  unguarded  moment,  yet  after  all  possible 
allowances,  I  wish  that  all  fathers  and  mothers  in  this 
land  could  feel  as  easy  and  safe  on  this  one  point  of 
the  sexual  perils  as  do  my  wife  and  I  in  regard  to  our 
four  boys  in  the  service.  I  hope,  however,  that  I  may 
say  without  egotism  that  they  are  all  above  the  aver- 
age in  brain,  brawn  and  virility.  These  boys  know  my 
life  and  their  mother's  life  before  they  were  thought  of, 
when  they  were  conceived,  and  after  they  were  born. 
They  know  that  sex  is  no  disgrace,  that  a  struggle  for 
continence  is  necessary,  that  lapses  resulting  from  ex- 
cessive vigor  are  no  disgrace ;  but,  chiefest  of  all,  they 
know  that  any  lapse,  any  incontinence  which  harms  or 
degrades  another,  which  renders  them  unfit  to  look  into 
the  eyes  of  the  girls  they  are  engaged  to,  which  makes 
problematical  the  prospect  of  offspring  and  necessi- 
tates a  probability  of  disease,  is  unethical,  disgraceful, 
and  the  source  of  greatest  misery  for  them  all.  They 
know  that  when  the  battle  was  too  hot  and  temporary 
defeat  or  abdication  was  inevitable,  their  nearest  of  kin, 
and  most  people  of  good  repute,  gave  ground  in  such  a 
way  that  with  the  same  dominant  purpose  and  with  more 
force  than  ever  before,  they  returned  again  to  the  fray, 
after  each  reverse.  Am  I  overconfident  in  believing 
that  they  will  make  use  of  the  same  tactical  means  in 
dealing  with  the  sex  problem  that  I,  and  you,  that  men 
and  women  generall}',  have  used  who  get  somewhat  above 
the  murky,  miasmal  swamps  yet  full  of  unenlightened 
humanity? 


290  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

This  may  be  a  long  peroration,  but  I  think  it  no  un- 
pardonable dilation  on  a  most  important  and  now  very 
acute  source  of  anxiety.  We  all  agree  that  nothing  in 
this  world  will  so  injure  you  or  all  the  rest  of  us  as  any 
sexual  promiscuity.  Think  of  the  ideality  of  conti- 
nence if  you  wish,  I  do ;  but  I  know  also  that  there  is  a 
real,  ungovernable  sex  necessity  at  times  in  the  lives  of 
all  normal  men  and  women.  However  much  you  think 
about  the  ideal  and  the  aesthetic,  I  beg  you  not  to  omit 
entirely  the  physical  and  the  practical. 

Paul  said,  "  It  is  better  to  marry  than  to  burn." 
Paul  was  a  casuistic  reasoner  in  the  days  when  ascetic 
ideals  were  paramount.  I  might  paraphrase  his  state- 
ment and  I  do  so,  with  all  reverence  to  him  and  to  his 
great  Master  and  Teacher.  "  Auto-erotism  is  better 
than  to  prostitute  yourself  or  her,"  is  my  statement. 
Paul's  observations  probably  were  largely  general,  mine 
are  largely  specific  —  not  necessarily  in  the  venereal 
sense  —  but  I  have  before  my  mind's  eye  thousands  of 
the  unpublished  pages  of  the  lives  of  men  and  women 
who  have  struggled  long  and  well  with  this  question. 

Both  the  statements  above  are  tantamount  to  saying 
that  some  legitimate  concessions  must  be  made  to  sex. 
If  sex  is  inevitable,  paramount,  omnipresent,  and  irre- 
pressible, then  some  relief  is  justifiable  ethically.  We 
all  know  that  moderate  relief  is  not  only  compatible 
with  health  and  sanity,  but  sometimes  a  necessity  to 
insure  these.  We  now  know,  also,  and  all  of  us  should 
teach,  that  the  lax  morals  and  venereal  perils  resulting 
from  promiscuity  are  the  worst  curses  to  moral  and 
physical  man.  There  is  no  alternative.  There  is  only 
one  course,  after  our  premises.  Moderate  auto-erotism 
is,  under  obsessing  sex  promptings,  neither  debasing  nor 
deleterious.     If  one  fights  a  good  fight,  prays  hard  and 


THE  ARMY  AND  NAVY  291 

works  hard,  whether  the  working  is  fighting,  knitting, 
or  preaching,  and  succumbs  sometimes  to  the  inevitable, 
there  need  be  no  shame  in  the  acknowledgment  of  these 
things.  The  soldier  returning  from  the  front  after  fol- 
lowing this  philosophy  might  proudly  say,  "  I  have 
carefully  and  prayerfully  cared  for  the  talent  which  the 
Lord  placed  in  my  keeping,  and  have  done  the  best  I 
could  to  preserve  inviolate  the  life  force,  shown  through 
the  sex  instinct." 

If  one  desires  confirmation,  would  he  prefer  as  au- 
thority the  guesses  of  the  ancients,  restated  over  and 
over  again,  in  so  many  of  our  well-meaning,  though  dan- 
gerous modem  books  of  sex-instruction ;  or  would  he 
prefer  to  believe  such  eminent  scientists,  altruists  and 
physicians  as  Eminghaus,  Griesinger,  Ellis,  Herbert, 
Forel,  Sir  James  Paget,  Woodruff,  Brill,  Gilbert,  and 
scores  of  others?  He  might  obtain  some  solace  by 
taking  this  proposition  to  any  elderly,  honest,  experi- 
enced physician,  and,  for  that  matter,  to  almost  any 
honest,  thoughtful  man  or  woman  who  has  grown  above 
the  trammels  of  dogmatic  tradition. 

Shame  on  our  civilization,  that  these  things  were  not, 
I  can  almost  say,  are  not,  whispered  about  in  our  col- 
leges, medical  schools  and  universities !  ]\lany  a  young 
man  and  many  a  young  doctor  procures  his  entire  sex 
knowledge  at  the  highest  price  in  a  brothel ;  and  the 
fault  is  not  his,  but  that  of  his  father,  his  doctor,  or  his 
teacher.  Go  honestly  into  your  own  life  and  any  lives 
that  you  know  accurately  about,  then  come  back,  and 
agree  with  me  and  say  so:  or  find  something  better,  and 
I'll  agree  with  you  and  burn  the  book. 


in 

ADVICE  FOR  THE  NEWLY  MARRIED 

I  HAVE  already  mentioned  that  a  good  share  of  this 
book  is  made  up  of  incidental,  daily  occurrences,  i.  e., 
concrete  cases  which  have  come  to  my  notice  while  I 
was  engaged  in  the  writing  of  it.  I  have  been  told  of 
what  may  seem  to  some  a  trivial,  but  which  in  reality  is 
a  very  important  case,  just  as  I  am  finishing  these 
chapters ;  and,  though  the  parties  involved  are  a  thou- 
sand miles  away,  I  am  going  to  give  what  I  know  of  it, 
and  the  best  solution  I  can,  from  my  very  insufficient 
data.  A  bride  of  a  few  months,  who  is  a  friend  of  a 
member  of  my  family,  also  a  young  married  woman,  con- 
fided in  the  latter  to  the  extent  of  explaining  her  diffi- 
culties as  a  bride.  This  bride  knew  there  was  some- 
thing wrong,  from  her  husband's  attitude,  and  also 
probably  from  hearsay  information.  This  was  con- 
firmed by  talking  with  the  other  young  woman  who  had 
had  a  perfectly  normal  experience,  i.e.,  she  had  had  a 
perfect  orgasm  at  the  second  intercourse  with  her  hus- 
band, and  thereafter  had  almost  invariabl}^  had  com- 
plete satisfaction  whenever  intercourse  occurred,  which 
was  three  or  four  times  a  night,  two  or  three  nights  in 
succession  when  they  were  together  every  two  weeks.  It 
seems  that  the  bride,  as  I  shall  call  her,  was  much 
troubled  and  anxious,  since  she  was  unable  usually  to 
have  any  pleasure  in  intercourse  and  ever  to  have  an 
orgasm.     She    knew    that   her   husband    expected    and 

longed  to  have  her  enjoy  him  as  he  enjoyed  her.      She 

292 


ADVICE  FOR  THE  NEWLY  MARRIED      293 

also  knew,  for  he  had  been  manly  enough  to  tell  her 
before  they  were  married,  that  he  had  had  previous 
experiences  with  other  women.  He  knew  something  of 
the  art  of  love  and  made  such  efforts  as  he  could  to 
awaken  her  erotic  nature.  This  was  all  to  no  avail 
except  that  at  times,  when  he  attempted  to  awaken  her 
desire  for  intercourse  by  titillating  her  clitoris,  she 
would  almost  instantly  have  an  orgasm,  and  of  course 
no  further  desire  for  anything  sexual  at  that  time.  He 
was  very  ardent  and  could  not,  or  would  not  leave  her 
alone  at  any  time  except  at  the  menstrual  period.  He 
was  precipitate  and  could  delay  the  orgasm  only  a  few 
minutes.  Conditions  were  such  that  she  did  not  wish 
to  immediately  become  pregnant  (though  she  wanted 
babies  as  much  as  any  woman),  and  they  practiced 
interrupted  intercourse,  or  withdrawal.  When  the  re- 
verse of  the  ordinary  position  was  tried  she  had  some 
erotic  feeling  but  never  an  orgasm.  This  is  about  all 
the  information  she  gave  to  her  friend  who  told  me  the 
circumstances ;  and  I  told  her  that  this  was  one  of  the 
neglected,  small  difficulties  of  early  matrimony  that  was 
probably  the  most  frequent  cause  of  divorce,  infidelity, 
and  neurosis.  I  ventured  the  opinion  that  if  all  the 
facts  were  known,  everything  could  be  quickly  and  satis- 
factorily adjusted.  ]\Iy  name  and  my  experience  with 
these  matters,  as  well  as  my  optimism  in  the  present 
case  were  mentioned  to  this  bride ;  and  as  a  result  I  add 
a  note,  just  received,  which  gives  a  little  information  in 
the  bride's  own  language : 

Things  are  no  better  yet  —  in  fact  much  worse.  Last 
week  it  caused  considerable  unliappiness  to  both  of  us.  I 
try  so  hard  to  be  aroused  and  sometimes  I  really  think  I 
could  come,  but  I  can't.  Am  just  about  dead  after  try- 
ing.    Last  week,   for   several  nights   I   just  couldn't  bear 


294  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

to  have  him  touch  me.  It  made  me  cold  all  over  and 
finally,  feeling  sorry  for  him,  I  compromised,  but  I  was  so 
desperately  mean  and  cranky  that  he  didn't  finish  and 
wouldn't  talk  to  me  the  next  day.  Oh,  but  he  was  cold  to 
me  and  that  almost  broke  my  heart.  I  don't  get  much  sat- 
isfaction any  more  by  his  touching  me  and  am  only  aroused 
occasionally  by  the  way  I  told  you,  which  is  the  only  suc- 
cessful one  for  me  (reverse  position).  If  Dr.  Robie  could 
do  anything  for  us  I  can  assure  you  it  will  never  be  for- 
gotten. You  know  everything  about  us  and  can  tell  him. 
Look  at  H.'s  wife.  She  is  just  like  me  and  she  is  in  the 
family  way.  Please  write  soon.  Will  tell  Dr.  R.  anything 
he  wishes  to  know. 

Now  I  am  going  to  try,  with  such  facts  as  I  have,  to 
explain  matters  to  this  bride  and  her  husband  by  letter, 
if  this  chapter  may  be  called  a  letter,  so  that  they  can 
work  these  matters  out  for  themselves.  It  will  be  plain 
to  all  who  read  the  foregoing  note  that,  if  I  am  success- 
ful in  my  guesses,  the  other  young  couple  referred  to 
there,  whose  case  is  about  the  same,  may  also  be  able  to 
solve  their  difficulty.  I  hope  my  professional  readers 
will  be  altruistic  enough  to  spread  some  of  this  informa- 
tion, (which  I  assure  you  is  worth  consideration)  judi- 
ciously to  the  young  people  in  their  own  immediate  circle 
as  they  start  on  life's  journey  together;  information 
which  a  censorious  and  prudish  public,  which  has  itself 
become  neurotic  and  prudish  from  lack  of  it,  forbids 
them  to  read  for  themselves  first  hand,  though  this  same 
public  seems  to  delight  in  their  wallowing  in  the  grue- 
some and  sensual  details  of  a  suitcase  mystery,  a  Riche- 
son  case,  a  Thaw  perversion,  or  a  Lesbian  suicide. 

Let  us  begin  with  the  husband.  We  know  he  has  had 
some  sexual  experience  before  marriage.  My  guess  is 
that  he  had  his  experience  almost  entirely  with  profes- 
sional prostitutes,  or  possibly  some  slight  experience 


ADVICE  FOR  THE  NEWLY  MARRIED      295 

with  some  girl  worked  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  erotic  excite- 
ment. In  the  former  case,  the  prostitute  would  per- 
haps pretend  to  enjoy  the  intercourse;  but  every  effort 
would  be  made  to  make  it  as  short  as  possible,  either  to 
escape  from  the  humiliating  situation  which  had  no 
pleasure  for  her,  or,  if  she  were  past  the  womanly  stage, 
and  of  a  mercenary  nature,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the 
one  whose  money  she  had  received  to  get  ready  for  the 
next  pa3'ing  admirer.  If  he  also  had  experience  with  a 
woman  in  uncontrollable  erotic  fervor,  she  would  also 
probably  soon  be  through  with  him,  in  this  case  because 
she  would  have  soon  become  completely  satisfied  and 
quiescent.  Let  us  assume  that  the  young  man  has  no 
idea  of  the  time  needed  for  a  perfectly  normal,  virtuous 
girl  of  eighteen,  newly  married,  to  become  erotically  en- 
thused and  completely  satisfied  sexually ;  or  for  that 
matter,  for  a  normal  woman  of  any  age,  though  she  may 
be  of  a  very  erotic  nature. 

A  medical  man  informed  me  recently  that  it  required 
sometimes  three  hours  for  him  to  completely  satisfy  his 
wife.  He  did  this,  not  only  because  he  knew  it  was 
necessary  for  her  health  and  most  pleasant  for  her,  but 
because  in  satisfying  her  he  got,  as  all  men  do,  his  most 
profound  pleasure.  This  would  seem  an  exaggerated 
case,  especially  as  this  man  has  been  married  twenty 
years  and  has  several  children ;  but  I  could  give  fuller 
details  of  many  others,  and  one  in  particular,  where  the 
time  required  is  never  less  than  half  an  hour  and  at  times 
two  hours  is  required.  We  also  know  that  this  young 
man  is  precipitate ;  he  may  be  able  to  control  the  com- 
ing of  the  climax  or  orgasm  three  minutes  or  fifteen, 
but  not  probably  more  than  that ;  after  the  climax  is 
reached  he  probably  has  no  disposition  to  repeat  the 
process  and  may  fear  to  do  so,  for  there  is  a  popular 


296  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

notion  to  the  effect  that  repetition  is  injurious.  Manv 
men  have  told  me  that  they  could  not  repeat  at  once,  as 
erection  would  subside  and  all  desire  would  cease.  A 
little  concentration  of  attention  and  realization  of  ne- 
cessity enabled  them  to  repeat  the  act  at  will  one  or 
more  times  until  their  wives  were  satisfied.  I  know  very 
well  a  man  who,  when  he  was  young  and  his  wife  was 
slow  to  enthuse,  being  desperate  on  account  of  her 
nervousness  and  crankiness,  loving  her  and  longing  to 
have  her  happy  with  him  in  every  way,  often  repeated 
the  act  three  or  four  times  without  once  withdrawing. 
This  was  difficult  at  first,  but  it  soon  became  easy  and 
before  very  long  such  repetition  was  unnecessary.  This 
man  and  his  wife  are  both  unusually  happy  and  abso- 
lutely healthy  and  the  wife  has  no  nervousness  and 
crankiness  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  thirty  years ;  but 
they  started  off  just  as  this  young  couple  are  doing,  on 
a  course  which  would  inevitably  have  resulted,  but  for 
intelligent  remedies,  in  invalidism  or  divorce  long  before 
this. 

As  a  rule,  a  young  married  man  who  is  strongly  virile 
and  deeply  in  love  with  his  wife  will  seek  intercourse 
with  her  nearly  every  night.  She  will  chide  him  and 
think  that  this  is  all  he  wants  her  for,  and  she  will  per- 
haps have  no  pleasure  at  all,  or  very  little.  If  he 
schools  himself  to  repeat  the  act  two,  three,  or  four 
times  without  any  appreciable  intermission,  or  until  his 
wife  reaches  the  climax,  he  will  not  be  so  ready  to  keep 
importuning  her  every  night  for  intercourse,  whether 
she  is  sick  or  well,  or  in  the  mood  or  not ;  and  mark  my 
word,  if  he  follows  the  above  outline  she  will  not  be 
likely  to  refuse  him  when  he  does  ask.  She  is  likely 
before  many  years  to  do  some  of  the  asking,  herself, 
unless  he  is  a  good  reader  of  signs  and  forestalls  her  in 


I 


ADVICE  FOR  THE  NEWLY  MARRIED      S97 

the  asking.  But  this  method  is  not  often  necessary. 
Think  a  little;  a  man  usually  has  to  pay  court  to  a 
woman  weeks  or  months  before  her  nature  is  awakened 
or  she  is  in  love  with  him  enough  for  him  to  propose  to 
her  with  any  prospect  of  a  favorable  answer.  After 
engagement,  the  woman,  who  usually  desires  to  delay 
marriage,  grows  more  reconciled  as  their  intimacy  deep- 
ens by  closer  contact.  Men  forget  that  woman's  na- 
ture does  not  essentially  change  after  marriage.  It  is  a 
long  road,  before  marriage,  to  the  first  kiss  with  a  nor- 
mal, virtuous  woman,  but  who  who  has  paid  the  price 
regrets  it.?  It  is  some  distance  after  marriage,  to  the 
first  intercourse  which  the  woman  desires  or  demands, 
but  no  man  ever  complains  of  the  time  or  hardship  in- 
volved in  the  attainment  of  this  summit  of  marital  bliss. 
All  the  things  necessary  to  get  the  first  kiss,  and  many 
more,  are  desirable  and  often  necessary  before  the  wife 
asks  or  welcomes  the  husband's  sexual  advances.  He 
must  control  his  erotic  feelings  for  a  time,  even  if  they 
seem  overpowering.  He  must  learn  that,  though  a  man 
may  become  almost  instantly  aroused  and  ready  for 
intercourse,  a  newly  married  woman  never  or  hardly 
ever  exhibits  this  phenomenon.  Embracing  and  kissing 
and  gentle  handling  are  preliminaries  to  further  inti- 
macy with  all  normal  women ;  and  if  we  stop  to  think 
of  it,  a  man  knows  this  instinctively  before  marriage, 
though  many  of  them  forget  it  after.  What  man  does 
not  remember  with  shame  a  desire,  which  some  have 
not  successfully  resisted,  to  get  his  hands  upon  his 
fiancee's  breasts  or  beneath  her  clothes.''  This  instinct 
should  be  controlled  absolutely  before  marriage,  but  it 
would  surprisingly  lessen  the  number  of  divorces  if  it 
were  more  often  remembered  and  heeded  after  marriage. 
I  have  talked  with  but  three  married  women  out  of 


298  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

several  hundred,  who  did  not  delight  in  having  their  hus- 
bands gently  hold  their  breasts  and  kiss  or  titillate  their 
nipples.  This  is  often  a  sufficient  preliminary  to  inter- 
course if  followed  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  but  the  major- 
ity of  wives  wish  also  their  husband's  hands  in  gentle 
dalliance  with  their  more  private  parts  before  inter- 
course. Nearly  all  girls  have  some  experience  with 
masturbation  in  which  the  clitoris  is  manipulated  and  is 
the  center  of  sensation.  Whether  they  do  or  not,  this 
is  the  organ  that  must  become  excited  before  they  desire 
intercourse.  Without  excitement  in  the  penis  a  man 
would  be  useless  in  intercourse;  so  is  a  woman  whose 
clitoris  is  quiescent,  so  far  as  any  pleasurable  results 
for  her  are  concerned.  We  have  spoken  of  some  pos- 
sible deficiencies  in  knowledge  or  errors  in  practice  on 
the  part  of  the  young  man.  Now  let  us  speak  of  the 
bride. 

She  was  very  young,  possibly  frightened  so  much  that 
at  first  there  was  no  room  for  sexual  feeling,  especially 
since  there  was  evidently  considerable  haste  on  the  part 
of  her  husband ;  but  we  know  that  she  is  perfectly  nor- 
mal, for  she  had  an  orgasm  at  times  when  he  touched  her 
clitoris.  Having  this  orgasm  so  quickly  may  show  that 
she  had  some  mental  reservations,  (thinking  the  whole 
process  was  not  right  or  nice,)  which  were  temporarily 
overcome  by  his  maneuvers.  She  may  worry  because  of 
the  harmless  practice  of  masturbation,  which  all  boys 
and  practically  all  girls  have  had  some  experience  with, 
though  girls  are  longer  in  getting  at  the  truth  of  the 
matter  and  over  the  feeling  that  there  has  been  some 
moral  transgression  of  which  to  be  ashamed,  or  that 
some  ph3^sical  calamity  is  pending  as  a  result  of  this 
practice.  If  this  is  a  factor,  the  sooner  husband  and 
wife  talk  over  and  dispose  of  these  foolish  worries  which 


ADVICE  FOR  THE  NEWLY  MARRIED      299 

have  no  basis,  the  better.  If  she  thinks  there  is  any- 
thing wrong  or  to  be  ashamed  of  in  the  preliminaries  to 
sexual  intercourse  between  husband  and  wife,  I  can 
assure  her  to  the  contrar3^  Perhaps  she  has  had  some 
special  daydream,  or  erotic  imaginings  which  have  come 
upon  her  as  a  result  of  some  story,  show,  or  erotically 
stimulating  scene  which  she  has  witnessed  some  time  in 
her  girlhood.  Often  these  imaginary  scenes  are  trouble- 
some to  deal  with,  for  the  woman  thinks  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  about  harboring  such  thoughts  and  she 
cannot  have  erotic  feelings  without  them  —  they  have 
grown  to  bp  a  habit.  She  should  not  hesitate  to  invoke 
the  old  pictures  if  they  are  necessary,  and,  if  they  are 
repugnant  to  her,  later,  with  her  husband's  assistance 
or  that  of  a  trained  psychologist,  unravel  the  cause  of 
these  imaginary  scenes  and  thus  get  rid  of  them. 

Her  present  condition,  as  shown  in  the  note,  which  is 
worse  than  the  first,  is  entirely  the  result  of  worry  and 
dread  over  her  non-success  in  sexual  matters.  She  must 
first  of  all  realize  that  her  condition  is  not  at  all  seri- 
ous and  stop  all  worry.  This  in  itself  will  help  her 
much  toward  becoming  entirely  normal.  There  is  no 
question  whatever  but  that  a  young  woman  such  as  she 
is,  with  a  considerate  and  honorable  husband  who  loves 
her  dearly,  may  become  in  a  short  time  absolutely  nor- 
mal and  perfectly  happy.  Her  irritabilit}'  and  his 
coldness  are  entirely  due  to  the  present  conditions. 
Their  present  state  would  grow  rapidly  worse  until 
chronic  unhappiness,  neurosis,  or  serious  rupture  re- 
sulted if  things  were  allowed  to  take  the  course  which 
has  begun ;  but  the  young  woman  and  the  3'oung  man 
both  are  in  love,  both  know  that  something  is  wrong, 
both  ought  to  now  realize  that  it  is  a  small  difficulty, 
both  wish  to  have  this  diificulty  rectified  and  they  will 


300  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

try  to  be  considerate  of  each  other  until  they  find  the 
remedy.  If  they  do  not  find  it  in  these  suggestions  they 
will  give  me,  or  some  one,  more  information  and  the 
solution  may  be  found  instantly. 

I  will  now  advise  a  specific  plan  of  action  for  them, 
basing  my  judgment  on  what  little  I  know  of  the  case. 
First,  let  them  talk  this  letter  and  all  these  matters  over 
very  freely  and  frankly  with  each  other  —  and  be  sure 
to  understand  that,  while  their  trouble  will  surely  re- 
sult seriously  if  nothing  is  done,  and  that  while  there 
may  be  some  discomfort  for  both  in  getting  adjusted, 
it  is  really  a  very  simple  matter  after  they  become  en- 
tirely familiar  with  each  other's  personalities  and  are 
absolutely  confidential  and  unreserved  with  each  other. 
They  must  stop  all  worry  and  go  to  courting, —  a  kiss 
after  breakfast,  and  one  just  before,  in  short,  at  all 
convenient  seasons  when  away  from  the  public  eye.  He 
should  sit  much  on  the  sofa  with  his  arm  around  her 
and  her  head  "  pillowed  on  his  breast,"  as  the  novels  say. 
They  should  try  to  avoid  a  crossness  and  coldness  that 
is  due  entirely  to  their  present  sexual  maladjustment 
and  which  is  not  wholly  avoidable  until  they  are  com- 
pleteh^  adjusted.  Still,  if  they  fully  realize  the  reason, 
they  will  be  more  charitable  and  not  take  little  things 
too  much  to  heart.  He  should  not  urge  her  to  inter- 
course against  her  will,  but  she  should  cheerfully  let  him 
try  to  make  intelligent  attempts  at  least  twice  a  week, 
and  for  his  comfort  and  disposition,  she  should  see  to  it 
that,  though  she  may  not  get  satisfaction  the  first  few 
times,  he  gets  complete  relief  at  such  times.  Before  be- 
ginning intercourse  he  should  hold  her  breasts  gently, 
perhaps  touch  her  nipples  lovingl}',  then  titillate  her 
clitoris  gently, —  unless  this  brings  an  orgasm  at  once, 
in  which  case  he  should  not  repeat  this,  but  start  inter- 


ADVICE  FOR  THE  NEWLY  MARRIED     301 

course  after  the  first  preliminaries,  being  in  the  reverse 
of  the  ordinary  position,  or  in  any  position  which 
proves  to  be  the  natural  position  for  them.  Intercourse 
should  continue  very  slowly  and  if  he  cannot  at  first 
wait  for  her  to  come,  let  him  do  so  and  continue  his  em- 
braces until  he  has  erection  and  desire  again.  Then  let 
him  continue  slowly,  always  trying  to  bring  the  penis  in 
contact  with  the  clitoris  (which  is  the  sensitive  little 
organ  just  above  the  opening  of  the  vagina),  while  they 
are  both  making  the  movements  of  intercourse.  If  he 
is  very  percipitate,  it  will  be  well  for  him  to  lie  perfectly 
still  and  let  her  make  the  movements  when  and  as  she 
desires.  He  will  not  have  much  success  with  her  if  he 
practices  withdrawal  at  this  early  stage  of  their  mar- 
ried life.  It  is  sure  to  be  bad  for  one  or  both  parties  if 
continued  long  at  any  time  in  married  life.  I  should 
advise  if  there  is  not  success  at  first,  that  they  should 
not  nag  or  be  cold  or  cross  to  each  other  when  they  have 
finished  their  attempts,  for  it  is  the  fault  of  neither  of 
them;  the  fault  is  ours  and  that  of  their  parents,  and 
that  of  the  public  in  general.  We  should  have  told 
them  a  great  many  of  these  things  before  they  were 
married. 

If  there  is  any  little  anatomical  peculiarity  in  either, 
it  may  have  to  be  seen  to.  If  there  is  something  I  have 
not  thought  of,  which  is  unusual  in  their  case,  more 
advice  will  be  necessary ;  but  I  fancy  that,  if  this  does 
not  solve  the  difficulty,  a  list  of  more  minute  details 
from  both  husband  and  wife,  with  the  thoughts  in  child- 
hood and  youth  and  at  the  present  time  about  marriage 
and  sex,  would  enable  me  to  guess  correctly  and  find  a 
ready  remedy  next  time. 


IV 

QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS 

WiTHix  a  week,  I  have  received  a  letter  containing 
some  questions  on  sex  subjects.  It  is  from  a  highly 
educated  man  about  sixty  years  of  age,  whose  life  has 
been  spent  in  educational,  literary,  and  public  work. 
His  character  and  morals  have  conformed  in  every  way 
to  the  highest  ethical  standards.  He  has  taken  great 
interest  in  sex  education  for  the  young  and  has  written 
pamphlets  of  instruction  for  young  people.  Many 
other  educated,  earnest,  altruistic  men  and  women  have 
asked  me  similar  questions  about  the  most  intimate  rela- 
tions of  life.  All  this  indicates  a  tremendous  amount 
of  ignorance  of  these  essential  things  among  people  who 
wish  and  will  make  every  effort  to  do  what  is  right  in 
sex  matters,  if  they  know  what  this  is.  If  this  man  has 
not  learned  these  facts  after  raising  a  family  and  after 
a  life-long  experience  with  young  people,  and  after  spe- 
cial study  of  sex  subjects,  it  is  clear  that  people  in 
general  do  not  know  these  things.  In  fact,  none  of  us 
know  some  of  them.  How  can  I  better  elucidate  some 
things  which  I  do  know  and  express  opinions  which  are 
the  result  of  study  and  experience  than  by  answering 
the  questions  in  this  letter,  and  some  queries  which  rise 
incidental  to  them,  as  best  I  may,  summoning  to  my  aid 
facts  from  the  histories  of  normal  and  nervous  people 
whom  I  have  long  known  and  whose  statements  I  can 
vouch  for? 

The  letter  f oUows : 

302 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  303 

My  dear  Dr.  Robie: 

I  want  you  to  know  that  you  have  written  an  unsually 
strong  book  on  a  very  important  and  much  slighted  sub- 
ject. I'm  not  sure  I'd  want  boys  and  girls  under  twenty 
to  read  it.  My  eyes  have  been  opened  wide  as  to  the  pos- 
sible prevalence  of  sexual  desire  and  its  satisfaction.  A 
few  questions  have  occurred  to  me,  suggested  mainly  by 
your  book  and  partly  by  my  many  years'  contemplation  of 
this  matter  and  observations  also. 

You  speak  of  "  moderate  "  masturbation  being  in  most 
cases  harmless.  What  do  you  mean  by  "moderate"? 
Once  a  day,  once  a  week,  or  even,  as  one  of  your  patients 
admits,  six  or  seven  times  a  day.^  Does  an  emission  al- 
ways follow  masturbating?  What  I  mean  is,  does  manipu- 
lating th-:  genitals  without  consummation  constitute  mastur- 
bation ? 

What  is  an  orgasm?  I  have  no  medical  books  and  the 
dictionary  is  not  clear.  Is  it  the  sensation  of  pleasure 
one  has  while  manipulating  his  or  her  privates?  I  can't 
quite  express  myself.  In  your  description  of  the  hysteria 
case  you  refer  to  her  having  several  orgasms  a  day.  Does 
this  include  the  pleasurable  sensation  while  emission  is  tak- 
ing place?  I  don't  know  much  about  the  sensations  felt 
by  the  female.  In  the  case  of  a  boy  or  man,  can  he  have 
an  orgasm  without  an  emission?  If  one  can  have  pleasing 
sensations  without  emission  is  it  possible  by  regulating  the 
manipulation  to  prolong  the  sensation  almost  without  limit? 
Is  this  more  or  less  injurious  than  allowing  an  emission? 

I  infer  that  this  hysteria  case  was  one  of  nerves.  Is  it 
safe  to  infer  from  this  that  nervous  people  may  mastur- 
bate with  impunity,  say  once  or  twice  a  day?  If  any  ill 
effect  were  to  follow,  would  it  be  heightened  or  lessened 
by  avoiding  an  emission  and  manipulating  the  parts  with  a 
more  or  less  mild  pleasure  resulting?  These  questions  are 
suggested  by  your  book,  coupled  with  some  observations 
during  a  long  life  as  an  educator.  Thank  you  for  elucidat- 
ing these  matters. 

Sincerely. 

What  is  moderate  masturbation.''  We  may  as  well 
include  intercourse,  and  ask  also,  what  is  the  proper 


304.  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

frequency  of  indulgence  for  the  married,  since  you  who 
read  this  and  who  wish  to  teach  your  children,  are  gen- 
erally ignorant  along  this  line  and  have  often  wondered 
over  and  prayed  to  know  whether  your  own  habits  of 
life  were  right  or  wrong.  Not  understanding  what  is 
proper  sex  expression  may  lead  to  disastrous  results, 
even  in  those  happily  married. 

Let  me  illustrate.  A  man  high  in  affairs,  prominent 
in  the  church,  with  a  lovely  wife  and  several  fine  chil- 
dren, at  the  acme  of  his  physical  strength  and  virility, 
nevertheless,  always  had  worried  over  the  supposed  dis- 
astrous effects  of  what  I  should  call  moderate  mastur- 
bation in  youth.  He  always  had  made  strong  attempts 
at  repression,  but  for  a  number  of  j^ears  there  had  been 
periods  when  he  masturbated  three  or  four  times  a 
week.  He  felt  now  that  any  use  of  his  sex  powers  had 
a  tendency  to  reduce  his  mental  efficiency.  He  gained 
this  idea  many  years  ago  from  quack  advertisements 
and  from  reading  the  ordinary  books  on  sex  subjects. 
As  his  work  required  a  ver}'  active  brain,  he  denied 
himself,  in  spite  of  tremendous  desire  for  his  wife.  His 
wife,  being  a  normal  woman  who  had  reached  the  stage 
of  full  sexual  development,  also  had  strong  desire  for 
him;  but  she,  learning  of  his  fear  of  debilitation  and 
supposing  him  to  be  right,  like  a  true  wife,  sacrificed 
her  own  feelings  and  made  every  effort  to  conceal  from 
him  her  own  natural  and  ardent  desire.  He  kept  up 
this  habit  of  control  until  he  suffered  intensely  physi- 
cally and  became  a  chronic  neurotic. 

He  had,  as  a  business  associate,  a  mature,  unmarried, 
well  developed  woman  of  young  adult  years,  who  also 
suffered  from  desire,  and  longed  for  love,  as  does  every 
normal  woman.  She  fell  in  love  with  this  man,  the  more 
naturally,   probably,   because    of   his   perfect    and    re- 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  305 

strained  virility.  (A  woman's  intuition  commonly 
penetrates  to  these  things,  and  every  one  knows  that  a 
perfect  woman  is  alwaj^s  unconsciously  drawn  to  the 
strong  and  virile  man,  just  as  she  is  repelled  by  the  weak 
and  impotent,  regardless  of  the  mental  attainments, 
moral  qualities  or  abundance  of  this  world's  goods.)  I 
do  not  know  whose  was  the  greater  fault ;  but  they  fell, 
though  both  earnestly  desired  to  be  right  and  moral, 
and  both  professed  this  desire  by  earnest  church  and 
social  Avork. 

The  anxiety  over  this  state  of  affairs  brought  on  the 
man  a  complete  nervous  collapse,  with  severe  depression, 
crying  spells  and  suicidal  ideas.  I  obtained  his  story, 
explained  that  his  foolish  ideas  in  regard  to  normal 
sex  relations  were  without  foundation,  and  told  him  to 
have  relations  with  his  wife  from  three  to  five  times  a 
week,  after  having  ascertained  from  her  that  this  fre- 
quency would  be  not  only  acceptable  but  very  desirable. 
I  insisted  that  he  should  do  as  he  already  had  deter- 
mined that  he  ought  to  do,  and  immediately  sever  his 
relations  with  the  other  woman. 

Then  I  sought  out  the  other  woman,  who,  though 
from  force  of  love  and  strong  desire  had  surrendered 
herself,  yet  constantly  suffered  from  a  guilty  conscience 
and  was  herself  anxious  to  break  off  their  relations, 
though  she  felt  that  to  do  so  might  break  her  heart  and 
ruin  her  life,  I  did  what  I  could  to  help  her  regain  her 
self-respect,  and  also  gave  her  hygienic  suggestions  for 
her  future  sex  life.  I  told  her  that  a  certain  amount  of 
auto-erotic  relief  probably  would  be  necessary  for  one 
of  her  ardent  nature  and  full  development  breaking  off 
completely  from  a  life  of  sexual  adjustment,  if  she 
would  avoid  neurotic  complications  and  physical  suffer- 
ing.    This  woman,  whose  tears  of  shame  and  sorrow 


306  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

and  gratitude  fell  copiously  during  our  interview  went 
and  "  sinned  no  more." 

These  things  occurred  many  years  ago,  but  as  yet 
no  nervous  disturbances  or  other  disharmonies  have  oc- 
curred in  any  of  the  parties  concerned.  What  I  wish 
to  impress  from  this  illustration  is  that  ignorance  of  the 
first  principles  of  life  led  this  man  to  be  unfaithful  to 
his  wife,  to  disgrace  himself  in  his  own  eyes,  and  to 
tempt  another  woman  into  error. 

When  I  told  him  to  have  intercourse  with  his  wife 
from  three  to  five  times  a  week,  I  already  had  gained 
a  pretty  good  notion  of  prevalent  customs  in  this  mat- 
ter. I  also  remembered  Martin  Luther's  advice  to  the 
married,  of  two  or  three  times  a  week,  as  proper  for 
sexual  congress.  I  have  seen  a  tremendous  amount  of 
suffering  and  inefficiency  in  the  best  sort  of  married 
people  from  being  too  continent.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
among  the  very  ignorant  and  the  very  rich,  the  reverse 
is  often  true.  I  cannot  be  too  emphatic,  however,  in 
the  statement  that  many  of  those  people  who  have  every 
wish  to  live  correctly  and  who  do  so  to  the  best  of  their 
ability  and  knowledge,  but  who  become  partially  ineffi- 
cient and  suffer  consequently  from  nervous  diseases  and 
from  constant  mental  strain  and  phj'sical  discomfort,  in 
spite  of  the  most  intelligent,  earnest  efforts  at  sublima- 
tion or  repression  of  the  sex  impulse,  are  too  continent. 
I  quote  very  briefly  from  the  histories  of  a  few  out  of 
the  many  people  I  have  known. 

A  man,  well  educated,  of  high  mechanical  ability,  and 
his  wife,  an  accomplished  musician,  married  sixteen 
years,  with  two  healthy  children,  have  been  happy  and 
in  excellent  health.  Neither  are  of  very  ardent  tem- 
perament. Often  there  is  an  interval  of  a  week  or  ten 
days  between  sexual  relations,  which  may  then  occur 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  307 

two  or  three  times  a  week,  followed  by  another  interval 
of  comparative  abstinence.  Their  relations  always  are 
mutually  satisfactory.  Before  marriage,  both  mastur- 
bated to  some  extent,  but  their  minds  were  early  set  at 
rest  on  this  score. 

A  university  professor  and  wife,  both  highly  edu- 
cated, hard  working  and  with  minds  of  the  highest  order, 
made  a  study  of  these  matters.  Both  masturbated 
somewhat  before  marriage,  both  worried  over  this ;  but 
were  relieved  from  worry  on  investigation.  They  have 
one  robust  child,  are  ideal  in  their  home  life  and  are 
useful  and  popular  everywhere.  This  young  wife  told 
me  that  she  considered  it  her  absolute  duty  to  be  free 
enough  from  care  and  from  the  exhaustion  of  household 
work  to  be  ready  to  anticipate  and  participate  in  mu- 
tually satisfactory  sex  relations  about  three  times  a 
week. 

Another  educator  of  note  discussed  with  me  sex  mat- 
ters soon  after  his  marriage.  Both  he  and  his  wife 
were  of  very  ardent  nature.  Before  marriage  his  wife 
had  masturbated  daily  for  eight  or  ten  years.  He  had 
pursued  the  same  practice  for  a  time,  but  had  aban- 
doned it  as  the  result  of  fright  from  sex  lectures  and 
quack  literature.  He  then  sought  clandestine  inter- 
course occasionally  when  repression  seemed  impossible. 
He  contracted  gonorrhoea,  abandoned  all  promiscuity, 
and  was  pronounced  cured  by  a  physician  before  mar- 
riage. Both  he  and  his  wife  had  suffered  keenest  agony 
over  their  sexual  aberrations.  Freed  from  this,  to  a 
large  extent,  and  deeply  in  love  with  each  other,  they 
had  sexual  relations  almost  daily  for  some  years. 
Later,  either  would  respond  at  any  sign  of  desire  in 
the  other.  Now,  after  nearly  twenty  years,  both  desire 
and  fully  enjoy  relations  from  once  to  three  times  a 


808  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

week.  This  union  has  been  perfectly  ideal,  both  parties 
have  been  in  perfect  health,  and  they  have  several  abso- 
lutely normal  children. 

A  professional  man  about  seventy,  married  at  thirty, 
had  been  told,  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  fourteen,  by  an 
older  boy  that  occasional  masturbation  was  not  harm- 
ful, and  he  resorted  to  this  once  or  twice  a  week  up  to 
the  time  of  his  marriage.  Since  marriage,  intercourse 
has  occurred  with  about  the  same  frequency.  He  and 
his  wife  have  had  a  long,  strenuous  life  of  usefulness 
and  are  now  surrounded  by  children  and  grandchildren 
in  abundance. 

A  clergyman  and  wife,  married  many  years,  and  with 
a  good  sized  family  were  in  a  most  unsatisfactory  condi- 
tion. They  were  living  together,  but  he  said  he  was  in 
Hell,  and  she  certainly  ought  to  have  been  in  a  sanita- 
rium. I  talked  with  this  woman  four  hours,  and  within 
a  fortnight  he  told  me  his  Hell  had  been  changed  to 
Heaven.  She  became  perfectly  well  and  happy,  and 
has  been  so  over  six  years.  It  seems  that  this  woman 
who  had,  like  most  nervous  women,  the  highest  ideals  of 
purity,  had,  from  the  teaching  of  older  girls  and  irre- 
pressible sex  desire,  been  led  to  masturbate  a  few  times 
a  month  during  her  girlhood  and  young  womanhood. 
She  had  arrived  at  the  opinion  that  everything  about 
sex  was  low  and  degrading,  that  she  herself  was  unfit  to 
be  a  wife  or  mother.  Nevertheless,  she  had  married, 
with  the  resolution  that  intercourse  should  be  only  for 
the  purpose  of  procreation.  She  broke  this  rule  some- 
what, but  postponed  each  sexual  embrace  until  her 
desire  was  irresistible  and  her  husband's  desire  had  com- 
pelled him  to  masturbate  for  relief.  The  interval  was 
usually  two  or  three  weeks.  I  cleared  her  brain  of  some 
old-fogy  notions  and  made  her  believe  that  it  was  per- 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  309 

missible  and  moral  for  them  to  have  intercourse  as  often 
as  they  had  the  inclination,  provided  it  did  not  interfere 
with  their  health,  happiness,  or  usefulness.  All  these 
things  increased  an  hundredfold,  and  thej  began  to 
have  and  still  have  relations  from  two  to  four  times  a 
week. 

A  young  woman  who  had  been,  from  the  age  of  six- 
teen, nervous,  frail,  and  self-condenming,  on  account  of 
masturbation  when  repression  seemed  impossible,  in 
spite  of  hard  study,  high  ideals,  and  religious  work, 
became  obsessed  at  about  the  age  of  twenty-two,  with 
sex  ima^xry.  These  constant  sex  imaginings  probably 
resulted  from  the  natural  increase  of  sex  ardor,  likely 
to  occur  at  her  age,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  a  young 
man  had  shown  her  marked  attentions,  which  had  come 
to  nothing,  as  he  married  another  girl.  She  was  in  a 
deplorable  state  of  nervous  depression,  and  all  efforts 
to  control  constant  imaginings  of  sex  situations  with 
this  young  man  and  others  were  unavailing.  I  told  her 
that  nature  was  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  and  that, 
though  repression  to  a  certain  extent  was  right  and 
advisable,  it  was  wrong  when  carried  to  the  extent  to 
which  she  had  carried  it.  I  told  her  she  ought  to 
marry,  but  she  would  never  be  able  to  if  she  persisted  in 
her  struggles  as  she  had  been  doing.  I  said  I  should 
respect  her  just  as  much,  as  would  every  other  decent 
man  and  woman,  if  she  resorted  to  enough  auto-erotic 
relief  to  control  her  obsessing  thoughts  and  her  physical 
discomfort.  She  tried  this  once  a  week  and  improved 
greatly,  but  still  suffered  from  insomnia  and  constant 
headache.  Then  she  tried  two  or  three  times  a  week, 
and  the  most  magical  change  ensued.  Several  years 
have  passed,  and  she  has  been,  up  to  date,  reasonably 
happy,  self-supporting,  and  in  good  health. 


810  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

Another  woman  of  liberal  education,  who  had  had 
sexual  shocks  in  earlj  youth,  from  contact  with  a  man 
much  her  senior,  and  who  had  masturbated  later  to  some 
extent  became  neurotic  and  suicidal  from  shame  and 
self-condemnation  over  these  things.  Explanations 
were  given,,  her  self-respect  was  regained,  she  allowed 
her  long-repressed  sexual  feelings  some  expression  auto- 
erotically,  frequently  for  some  weeks,  and  then  about 
once  a  week  except  at  the  menstrual  period,  when  these 
experiences  occurred  three  or  four  times  on  successive 
days.  She  gained  in  weight,  resumed  her  work,  began 
to  look  forward  to  a  home  and  children,  and  altogether 
became  the  picture  of  a  perfectly  contented  woman. 

A  man  of  twenty-six  had  symptoms  similar  to  those 
of  the  young  woman  above.  Accidentally  and  spon- 
taneously he  had  begun  to  masturbate  at  twenty.  He 
was  highly  educated  and  read,  not  the  quack,  but  med- 
ical treatises  on  these  subjects.  He  felt  certain  of 
moral  degradation,  and  confident  that  he  would  become 
insane.  He  immediately  adopted,  after  some  explana- 
tion, what  I  considered  a  sensible  view  of  the  matter, 
and  gave  up  his  too  strenuous  repression.  He  mas- 
turbated two  or  three  times  a  week  from  that  time  until 
his  marriage,  a  year  or  two  later,  and  he  is  still  well 
and  happy. 

I  have  given  samples  of  several  classes  of  men  and 
women.  I  might  multiply  the  cases  from  each  class 
almost  indefinitely  from  my  own  records,  and  I  know 
that  others  who  have  dealt  with  these  matters  could  do 
the  same  as  I,  but  these  are  enough  for  illustration.  I 
should  say,  from  the  above  and  other  experiences,  that 
moderate  masturbation  was  about  the  same  as  mod- 
erate intercourse,  and  that  no  absolute  rule  could  be 
laid  down  for  either,  since  people  differ  so  much  in 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  311 

virility  and  in  the  rapidity  of  life  changes.  Once  a 
fortnight  would  be  moderate  for  one,  possibly  once  a 
day  would  be  for  another.  Still,  both  would  be  ex- 
treme cases.  Two  or  three  times  a  week  are  still,  I 
think,  as  in  the  time  of  Luther,  the  frequency  with  which 
strong  desire  may  be  safely  gratified  in  a  large  majority 
of  people  of  both  sexes,  whether  single  or  married ;  but 
the  stimulation  to  sex  activity  in  married  life  is  such 
that  more  frequent  relief  is  necessary  than  in  the  un- 
married of  equal  sex  capability.  Auto-erotic  relief 
once  or  twice  a  week,  when  desire  is  strong,  too  strong 
for  resistance,  ought  to  be  safe  in  the  unmarried  and 
ought  to  be  sufficient,  in  one  who  is  intelligently  striving 
to  be  continent. 

Taking  up  the  other  questions,  the  word  orgasm,  in 
medical  terms,  is  used  to  denote  the  spasmodic,  rhyth- 
mic contractions  wliich  occur  at  the  height  of  sexual 
pleasure  in  either  sex.  At  this  time,  the  expulsion  of 
semen  occurs  in  the  male,  and  a  discharge  of  mucus 
from  the  glands  in  the  vulva  and  vagina  in  the  female. 
Following  the  orgasm  is  relief,  disappearance  of  desire, 
and  temporary  exhaustion  in  the  male,  and  often  the 
same  sequence  in  the  female;  but  many  women,  and 
among  them  those  most  virtuous  and  normal,  desire  and 
need  slight  additional  stimulation  after  the  first  or- 
gasm, upon  which  occur  one,  two,  or  more  orgasms  in 
rapid  succession,  followed  finally  by  complete  abatement 
of  sexual  desire. 

Self-induced  sexual  excitement  to  any  extent  is  tech- 
nically masturbation,  but  it  is  usually  understood  that 
an  orgasm  is  produced.  However,  I  have  been  told 
by  hundreds  who  have  masturbated  that  they  had  done 
so  many  times  to  the  extent  of  pleasurable  sensations 
and  even  to  the  verge  of  an  orgasm  and  then,  by  force 


312  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

of  will,  foregone  the  climax.  This  had  been  done  be- 
cause of  the  prevalent  belief  that  the  danger  of  mas- 
turbation lav  mostly,  if  not  altogether,  in  the  loss  of 
semen  in  the  male  and  in  the  acme  of  excitement  in  the 
female.  Some  have  postponed  the  orgasm  for  a  time 
in  this  way  frankly  to  prolong  the  pleasurable  sensa- 
tions. This  withholding  of  the  orgasm  is  at  the  basis 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Oneida  Community,  who  claimed 
to  practice  intercourse  without  emission  of  semen  in  the 
male  and  without  the  attainment  of  the  orgasm  in  the 
female. 

Karezza,  a  book  written  by  a  woman  physician,  ad- 
vocates the  same  thing,  the  purpose  being  to  spare  the 
woman  too  frequent  pregnancies. 

Another  book,  entitled  Zugassenfs  Discovery,  is  de- 
voted to  the  advocacy  of  the  same  practice.     I,  myself, 
have  recommended  that  a  man  should,  at  times,  refrain 
from  reaching  a  climax,  or  orgasm,  when  he  finds  that 
his  wife,  at  that  time,  cannot  accomplish  it,  and  also  I 
have  advised  delay  on  the  part  of  the  husband  until  the 
wife  was  ready  for  the  climax.     Undoubtedly,  there  is 
neither  any  harm  nor  much  benefit  except  for  the  psy- 
chic satisfaction,  to  the  man  himself,  from  this  pro- 
cedure, but  there  is  undoubtedly  great  benefit  to  the  wife. 
If  the  orgasm  is  always  withheld  or  if  there  are  very 
frequent,  long  periods  of  unsatisfied  sex  excitement,  al- 
though after  a  time  abatement  of  desire  as  a  result  of 
exhaustion  may  occur,  there  is  no  actual  relief  of  the  sex 
glands  nor  a  restored  equilibrium  such  as  occurs  after 
every  completed  sexual  act.     In  these  cases,  harm  may 
be  done  to  the  nerves  of  the  parts,  and  perhaps  to  the 
entire  nervous  system.     It  is  my  belief  that  the  members 
of  the  Oneida  Community  or  the  other  cults  committed 
to  this  practice  did  have  orgasms  now  and  then  by  mas- 


QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  313 

turbation  or  otherwise  and  that  no  one  of  strong  virility 
could  induce  protracted  periods  of  sex  excitement,  cov- 
ering a  long  period  of  time  without  occasional  complete 
relief  in  an  orgasm  without  serious  harm  resulting.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  have  known  of  couples  deficient  in 
virile  power,  or  advanced  in  years  to  have,  for  years, 
regular  periods  of  sexual  enjoyment  without  orgasm, 
and  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  this  was  beneficial  rather 
than  otherwise. 

Concerning  masturbation   in   a   neurotic   individual, 
it  is  safe  to  say  that  usually  a  neurotic  differs  little 
from  the  ordinar}^  normal  person  except  that  he  has  un- 
dergone sex  shocks   in  childhood,   or  he  has   stronger 
moral  scruples  concerning  his  inability  entirely  to  re- 
press  his   sexual   desire.     The   worry   about   this    fre- 
quently is  the  sole  cause  of  the  nervous  trouble.     At 
other  times  repressed,  sub-conscious  experiences  cause 
the  trouble.     When  conscious  repression  has  been  ex- 
treme, or  where  hysteria  or  obsessions  or  phobias  have 
been  substituted  for  desire,  which  is  temporarily  absent, 
sex  relief  possibly  once  a  day  for  a  time,  in  either  the 
single  or  the  married,  seems  almost  unavoidable  if  the 
person  is   to  get  rapidly   over  the  nervous   condition. 
This  frequency,  however,  is  desired  or  is  necessary  only 
for  a  short  time  when  relief  once  or  twice  a  week  or  less 
is  all  there  is  demand  or  necessity  for.     If  you  take  the 
flashboards  off  the  dam,  the  water  that  has  been  held 
back  must  go  over  with  a  rush  in  large  volume  for  a 
short  time.     Then  only  that  wliich  comes  in  from  the 
stream   which   feeds   the  pond   flows   over.     The   same 
thing  occurs  when,  by  wise  instruction  the  check  to  un- 
necessary restraint  is  removed  and  the  long  pent-up  sex- 
uality seeks  frequent  expression  for  a  short  time.     No 
orgasm  occurs  witliout  emission,  though,  after  a  long 


314  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

period,  there  may  be  a  disappearance  of  desire  and  sen- 
sation. Space  does  not  permit  further  question  and 
answer  in  this  connection,  but  there  are  many  allied 
topics  which  could  be  discussed  with  propriety  and 
profit  by  parents  and  their  married  or  marriageable 
children. 


IS  CONTINENCE  NECESSARY  TO  THE 
HIGHEST  ACHIEVEMENT? 

Most  writers  on  sex  subjects  assert  that  strict  con- 
tinence must  be  observed  during  prolonged  mental  ef- 
forts, or  when  preparing  for  or  accomplishing  difficult 
physical  tasks.  This  is  advanced  as  a  rule  of  universal 
application.  I  have  not  enough  evidence  to  refute  this 
teaching  altogether,  but  I  have  absolute  proof  that 
there  are  numerous  exceptions  to  any  such  rule.  While 
it  is  abundantly  demonstrated  that  prolonged  effort, 
psychic  or  physical,  by  an  individual  in  a  state  of  semi- 
starvation,  or  in  extreme  temperatures,  tends  to  reduce 
or  abolish  temporarily  the  sex  impulse,  while  it  is  with- 
out doubt  true,  also,  that  many  people  whose  sex  na- 
tures are  subnormal  may  use  all  the  superfluous  sex 
force  by  sublimation  in  other  forms  of  prolonged  effort, 
and  while  it  may  be  that  some  strongly  sexed  people  are 
able  to  use  the  entire  sex  surplus  in  the  sublimation  inci- 
dent to  mental  or  physical  endeavor,  nevertheless,  re- 
peated observations,  made  on  actual  people,  convinc- 
ingly establish  that  there  are  at  least  very  manj  excep- 
tions in  this  last  class. 

A  man  who  had  studied  these  matters  carefully  and 
who  had  made  repeated  observations  on  himself  for 
many  years,  became  thoroughly  convinced  that  he  un- 
derwent periods  of  great  physical  strenuosity  much 
better,  that  his  efforts  could  be  more  prolonged  and 

better  sustained  if  the  usual  regime,  which  included  mar- 

315 


S16  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

ital  relations  several  times  a  week,  was  adhered  to.  It 
also  became  convincingly  evident,  when  difficult  and  pro- 
longed mental  work  was  in  progress,  that  there  was 
always  an  increase  in  the  sex  impulse.  If  this  were  re- 
sisted, and  continence,  or  practical  continence,  observed, 
the  work  became  arduous  and  irksome,  and  the  result 
of  little  value.  But  when  nature  was  heeded  and  mar- 
ital relations  increased  considerably  beyond  the  usual 
frequency,  he  did  the  best  work  of  which  he  was  capable, 
and  did  it  with  ease  and  enthusiasm. 

A  teacher  of  much  experience,  whose  work,  of  course, 
is  prevailingly  mental,  reports,  after  repeated  experi- 
ences in  a  state  of  repression  alternating  with  a  state 
which  he  believed  to  be  that  of  conjugal  license,  or  even 
excess,  that  in  the  latter  condition,  in  spite  of  his  con- 
victions, he  performed  all  his  duties  enthusiastically  and 
well ;  while  in  the  former  state  constant  irritability,  ab- 
sence of  enthusiasm,  and  a  low  state  of  efficiency  charac- 
terized his  attitude  and  his  work. 

Several  college  students  of  both  sexes  have  reported 
that  ordinarily  the  sex  impulse  was  under  excellent  con- 
trol, auto-erotic  relief  being  sought,  perhaps,  once  or 
twice  a  week  in  addition  to  occasional  emissions  or  other 
of  the  sex  manifestations  of  sleep  •,  but  when  difficult  ex- 
aminations were  being  undergone  or  prolonged  thinking 
was  in  progress,  sex  impulses  would  invariably  show  an 
automatic  increase.  If  these  were  repressed,  the  work 
seemed  much  harder  and  the  results  much  less  satisfac- 
tory than  when  auto-erotism  was  increased  for  a  period 
corresponding  to  that  of  increased  mental  work.  After 
repeated  experiences  there  was  no  doubt  whatever  that, 
with  more  frequent  sex  expression,  the  work  was  done 
much  more  easily,  with  a  greater  sense  of  well-being, 
and  the  results  were  incomparably  more  creditable. 


IS  CONTINENCE  NECESSARY  317 

A  young  woman  who  had  the  nocturnal  sleep  mani- 
festations of  sexual  dreams  with  orgasm  about  once 
a  month,  and  who,  in  addition,  allowed  herself  auto- 
erotic  relief,  consisting  of  one  or  two  orgasms  once,  or 
possibly  twice,  a  week,  during  a  week  of  difficult  ex- 
aminations, had  persistent  erotic  feelings  on  Monday, 
followed  by  an  auto-erotic  experience  in  which  there 
were  two  orgasms.  All  anxiety  disappeared,  and  the 
examinations  for  the  next  two  days  went  with  unusual 
smoothness.  Again,  on  Thursday  afternoon,  preced- 
ing a  most  difficult  examination  set  for  the  following 
morning,  she  suffered  from  unusual  and  distressing  sex- 
ual disturbance  which  she  finally  quelled  by  an  auto- 
erotic  experience  culminating  in  five  orgasms  in  rapid 
succession.  She  had  never  had,  previousl}^,  any  such 
erotic  experience.  Immediately  after  this,  she  felt 
calm,  self-reliant,  and  in  perfect  form. 

On  the  following  day  she  passed  very  creditably  the 
examination  in  which  she  had  expected  to  fail,  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  work  of  the  week  went  smoothly.  Next 
week  she  had  no  erotic  disturbances  and  was  not  at  all 
tired  or  nervous,  conditions  which  invariably  had  been 
present  on  former  similar  occasions,  when  she  had  exer- 
cised complete  control  over  all  erotic  feelings. 

I  might  quote  other  conscientious  and  exact  observa- 
tions similar  to  the  above,  and  numerous  less  exact  ob- 
servations of  men  and  women  who  have,  in  their  own 
cases,  observed  similar  results  under  similar  conditions 
of  continence  or  relative  continence. 

These  certainly  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  hith- 
erto accepted  postulate  that  continence  is  necessary  for 
highest  achievement  is  debatable,  if  not  a  hypothesis 
constructed  from  insufficient  data. 

The    following    quotation    from    Herbert    Spencer, 


318  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

though  I  never  have  seen  it  quoted  by  those  claiming 
to  submit  facts  as  a  basis  for  sex  ethics,  is  at  least 
suggestive  in  this  connection. 

That  the  physiological  effects  of  a  completely  celibate 
life  on  either  sex  are  to  some  extent  injurious,  seems  an 
almost  necessary  implication  of  the  natural  condition,  but 
whether  or  not  there  be  disagreement  on  this  point,  there 
can  be  none  respecting  the  effects  of  a  celibate  life  as  men- 
tally injurious. 

Herbert  Spencer,  Inductions  of  Ethics,  Sec.  231. 


VI 

REGENERATION 

Some  years  ago  I  boarded  a  week  or  two  at  the  same 
house  with  a  very  clever  mechanic.  He  evidently  was 
not  of  the  type  whose  sex  histories  I  cared  to  use  in  the 
study  I  have  been  making,  as  his  moral  standards  were 
too  elastic ;  but,  becoming  somewhat  interested  in  him, 
and  partly  with  the  hope  of  helping  him,  and  partly, 
to  satisfy  my  own  curiosity,  I  obtained  his  history, 
which  I  think  worth  presenting,  as  showing  that  sexual 
misdemeanors  do  not  always  pr«vent  a  return  to  the 
upper  air. 

This  young  man  of  twenty-five  came  of  a  healthy 
parentage  and  never  had  had  any  serious  sickness. 
When  he  was  twelve  years  old,  he  was  kicked  in  the 
scrotum  by  a  horse,  causing  a  left-oblique  inguinal  her- 
nia and  later  atrophy  of  the  left  testicle.  When  four- 
teen years  of  age,  a  girl  of  eighteen  seduced  him.  At 
her  first  overtures,  he  was  frightened ;  but  she  assisted 
him  and  pulled  him  over  upon  her,  and  he  soon  had  an 
orgasm  with  semen.  For  some  time  he  had  intercourse 
with  this  girl  every  three  days,  then  every  day  for  a 
month  or  so. 

Six  months  after  the  initial  experience,  he  left  that 

locality,  and  being  deprived  of  intercourse,  began   to 

masturbate  about  twice  a  week.     He  soon  imbibed  the 

popular  fears  regarding  this  practice  and  remembered 

that  his  mother  had  told  him,  when  he  was  a  small  boy, 

319 


320  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

that  if  he  played  with  himself  he  would  go  crazy.  He 
wondered  if  masturbation  would  not  make  him  lose  his 
desire  for  intercourse  with  women.  He  made  an  effort 
to  stop  masturbating,  and  would  abstain  for  two  or 
three  weeks,  when  he  would  have  a  nocturnal  emission, 
which  frightened  him  as  much  as  the  masturbation.  In 
spite  of  his  experience  with  the  girl,  he  attempted  to 
refrain  from  promiscuous  relations ;  but,  as  his  nature 
was  too  strong  for  absolute  continence,  and  he  dared 
not  masturbate,  fearing  insanity  or  that  he  would  cease 
to  care  for  women  altogether,  he  began  to  have  inter- 
course with  girls  once  in  two  or  three  weeks.  He  never 
went  with  common  prostitutes  more  than  once  or  twice, 
fearing  disease. 

When  he  was  nineteen,  the  aunt  of  one  of  his  chums,  a 
woman  much  older  than  he,  came  into  his  room,  and 
stayed  over  night.  This  was  done  to  accommodate  him, 
but  he  contracted  gonorrhoea,  which  soon  was  cured  by 
appropriate  treatment. 

Once  he  said  to  a  married  friend,  "  You  have  a  nice 
little  wife,"  to  which  the  husband  replied,  "  Why  don't 
you  come  to  see  her?  "  He  went  to  see  them  one  even- 
ing. The  man  asked  him  to  stay  over  night,  saying  he 
could  sleep  with  him.  When  he  woke  in  the  morning, 
he  found  the  man's  wife  in  the  bed  between  them.  The 
man  said  "  This  is  my  side.  You  may  have  the  other." 
Then  he  got  up  and  left  the  room,  and  his  wife  locked 
the  door.  This  woman  was  very  erotic,  and  for  a  long 
time  he  visited  her  frequently  with  the  husband's  ap- 
proval. 

For  the  last  three  years  he  has  been  going  with  one 
young  woman  and  has  been  with  no  other  woman  during 
this  period.  He  refrained  from  intercourse  and  mas- 
turbation for  six  months,  then  began  to  have  emissions 


REGENERATION  821 

once  a  week.  After  this  had  happened  four  or  five 
times,  he  was  frightened,  as  he  had  been  when  a  boy,  and 
began  to  masturbate  about  once  a  week  until  six  months 
ago  when,  after  much  persuasion,  the  girl  consented  to 
intercourse.  Whenever  he  suggested  it,  she  tried  to 
persuade  him  not  to  do  it,  but  finally  consented. 
Though  they  were  much  together,  their  sexual  relations 
were  infrequent.  I  explained  somewhat  about  mastur- 
bation and  emissions,  and  he  said  that  if  he  had  a  boy, 
he  would  prefer  to  have  him  masturbate  ever  so  fre- 
quently rather  than  to  go  with  a  woman. 

I  asked  him  about  marrying  the  girl,  and  he  said  he 
thought  of  doing  so  sometime  when  his  finances  were  sat- 
isfactory. I  then  urged  very  strongly  that  he  do  this 
at  once,  and  I  was  gratified  to  learn  that  they  were  mar- 
ried within  two  weeks.  He  has  remained  faithful  to  her, 
they  have  two  healthy  children,  and  their  home  is  un- 
usually happy.  ^ 

1  Ten  years  later. 


vn 

THE  OLD  IDEALISM  IN  SEX  TEACHING 

There  is  a  book  entitled  Marriage  and  the  Sex  Prob- 
lem by  F.  W.  Foerster,  Professor  of  Education  in  the 
University  of  Vienna,  which  I  have  not  space  to  attempt 
to  review.  It  is  full  of  good  intentions,  partial  truths, 
and  the  highest  traditional  idealism.  I  shall  give  a  few 
brief  quotations,  but  it  must  be  read  in  its  entirety  to 
learn  where  unqualified  idealism,  without  consideration 
of  nature  and  instinct,  leads  us.     He  says: 

By  thus  resisting  intellectual  curiosity,  a  sense  of  shame 
exerts  also  another  kind  of  protective  influence;  it  restrains 
people  from  regarding  a  function  which  should  be  dedi- 
cated to  the  service  of  the  race  as  a  mere  means  of  per- 
sonal enjoyment.  The  great  educators  of  the  past  have 
all  been  instinctively  aware  of  this  truth,  and  have  strongly 
insisted  on  the  importance  of  cultivating  a  sense  of  shame; 
they  have  realised  that  the  chief  task  of  sexual  education 
is  not  to  draw  the  attention  to  sex  matters,  but  to  de- 
tract it  from  them.  They  have  understood  that  in  making 
use  of  the  intellect  to  restrain  sex  instincts,  there  was  every 
danger  of  the  intellect  itself,  through  the  excessive  famil- 
iarization, being  captured  and  employed  in  the  service  of 
the  enemy.  Their  methods  were  therefore  indirect.  They 
believed  it  best  to  develop  religious  thoughts  which  should 
have  the  effect  of  raising  the  individual,  not  only  above 
sensuality  but  above  the  whole  sphere  of  the  material  uni- 
verse. By  means  of  ennobling  truths,  and  symbols,  they 
aimed  at  keeping  the  individual  constantly  in  touch  with 
a  higher  life.  On  the  basis  of  such  considerations  as  the 
above,  I  find  myself  compelled  to  protest  emphatically  and 

322 


THE  OLD  IDEALISM  323 

on  principle  against  every  kind  of  sexual  instruction  in  the 
school,  and  in  tact,  against  am'  too  detailed  enlightenment 
of  the  young  with  regard  to  sexual  matters. 

.  .  .  Even  in  the  case  of  boys  leaving  school  at  the  end 
of  their  teens  it  is  of  no  value  to  enter  into  explanations 
of  all  the  different  sexual  diseases,  as  is  now  so  often  done. 
The  boys  already  know  more  about  tliis  subject  than  the 
teacher  tells  them.  It  would  produce  an  infinitely  better 
effect,  if  the  teacher  were  to  give  the  boys  the  broadest 
idea  he  could  of  the  great  possibilities  of  character;  if  he 
were  to  encourage  them  to  look  at  the  whole  question  of 
sex  from  the  point  of  view  of  character,  to  consider  their 
responsibilities,  and  the  value  of  restraint  and  self-mas- 
tery. .  .  .  The  scientific  method  I  believe  is  not  practi- 
cable. .  .  .  We  must  not  forget  that  the  root  of  all  thirst 
for  knowledge  lies  in  sexual  curiosity,  and  that  it  would 
involve  a  great  injury  to  the  development  of  humanity  if 
children  were  to  be  permanently  enlightened.  .  .  .  He  who 
thinks  religion  is  derived  from  sex,  who  ranks  himself  with 
those  foolish  people  who  are  always  trying  to  explain  the 
world  from  one  point  of  view,  does  not  understand  that 
the  mighty  uplifting  force  which  was  behind  the  great  re- 
ligious personalities  of  the  past  —  and  indeed  led  them  to 
deny  themselves  earthly  love,  could  hardly  have  itself  orig- 
inated from  sex  instinct  .  .  .  those  whose  aim  it  is  to  sub- 
ject human  nature  to  the  spirit  and  to  arouse  the  will  to 
self-activity  will  need  earnest  and  strict  ideals  which  lift 
the  spiritual  clear  above  the  natural,  and  present  it  in  a 
state  of  purity  and  separation  from  sensuous  influences. 
.  .  .  Those  who  mock  at  celibacy  as  unnatural  and  impos- 
sible, know  not,  in  very  truth,  what  they  do.  .  .  .  Consist- 
ent monogamy  stands  or  falls  with  the  esteem  in  which 
celibacy  is  held. 

If  I  had  had  the  requisite  ability,  I  should  have  writ- 
ten just  such  a  book  twenty-five  years  ago,  before  I 
began  the  intensive  study  of  people ;  and  had  I  contin- 
ued reading  books  alone,  I  certainly  should  have  had  the 
disposition  and  perhaps  the  necessary  kind  of  scholarly 
ability  requisite  for  writing  a  similar  book  today ;  but 


SU  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

the  book  of  life  has  taken  from  me,  as  have  the  necessi- 
ties of  life,  much  time  that  others  have  given  to  episte- 
mology,  to  dialectics  and  to  form.  I  never  can  hope 
to  compete  with  them  in  these  things.  My  prolixity, 
and  irrelevancy,  my  barbarisms,  solecisms,  and  general 
incongruities  were  prescribed  for  me  by  an  environment 
as  inexorable  as  those  human  limitations  whose  influ- 
ences I  so  often  insist  inexorably  proscribe  man's  com- 
plete temporal  realization  of  that  Absolute  which  is  ever 
his  quest. 

The  book  I  have  quoted  from,  is  written  with  the 
highest  educational  and  moral  motives,  by  one  who  is 
most  scholarly  in  the  learning  of  the  schools.  It  is  a 
most  readable  book  and  its  doctrines  are  what  those  of 
us  who  have  aspired  for  the  elevation  and  purification 
of  humanity,  along  the  lines  of  the  older  idealism,  would 
like  to  believe  without  reservation ;  but  it  is  not  a  ques- 
tion of  what  we  may  think  should  be  an  ideal  life  and 
an  ideal  destiny  for  man,  but  of  what  life  and  of  what 
destiny  he  is  capable  within  his  temporal  limitations. 
I  recommend  the  reading  of  this  book  and  its  acceptance 
within  proper  limits,  but  not  in  toto.  The  author's 
knowledge  is  of  books  and  systems,  his  aspirations  are 
for  ideals  far  and  away  above  nature  and  biology,  and 
he  takes  no  account  of  the  physical  man.  For  him,  all 
instinct  and  emotion  are  to  be  repressed,  dominated, 
sublimated.  If  this  man  had  possessed,  with  his  other 
qualifications,  a  real,  intimate,  scientific  knowledge  of 
the  inner  springs  of  human  life  and  conduct,  he  would 
have  become  an  idealist  with  sufficient  pragmatism  to 
accommodate  human  limitations. 

It  is  one-sided  books  of  this  kind,  of  unimpeachable 
honesty,  and  assuredly  of  purposes  above  criticism,  yet 
palpably  untrue  to  life  in  our  age  or  any  age,  which 


THE  OLD  IDEALISM  325 

have  furnished  the  neurologist  and  the  alienist  with 
much  of  their  business  in  the  last  decade,  and  which  have 
filled  our  divorce  courts  to  overflowing  and  helped  re- 
cruit the  ranks  of  prostitution, —  things  which  are  all 
farthest  from  the  thought  and  intent  of  the  authors. 
Why  can  an  extremist  never  be  right?  Because  we  are 
not  infinite.  If  man  could  reach  infinity  or  perfection, 
then  unqualified  lines  of  conduct  might  be  prescribed, 
but  man  has  limitations.  He  is  human,  finite,  and  is 
as  much  a  derelict  in  an  ether  so  refined  that  his  sensu- 
ous nature,  which  is  fundamental  for  him  and  an  in- 
tegral part  of  him,  cannot  breathe,  as  his  body  is  when 
it  is  engulfed  in  a  flood  so  filled  with  the  debris  of  the 
lowest  sensual  that  he  cannot  swim.  Whether  we  wish 
to  or  not,  we  must  take  cognizance  of  ourselves,  of  man- 
kind in  general,  and  if  we  are  made  to  breathe  air,  not 
attempt  to  go  in  our  aeroplanes  beyond  the  atmosphere 
which  is  our  natural  habitat.  We  must  keep  trout  in 
well-aerated  water  if  we  wish  to  preserve  life,  but  a  pout 
will  live  a  long  time  in  the  mud.  You  may  remove  a 
man's  stomach,  observing  proper  technique,  and  he  may 
live  and  thrive,  but  you  cannot  remove  the  whole  di- 
gestive tract  and  get  any  such  result. 

The  author's  remarks  on  the  feasibility  or  desirabil- 
ity of  celibacy  and  absolute  continence,  remind  me  of  a 
conversation  which  occurred  during  the  early  days  of 
my  sex  investigations.  In  advancing  a  somewhat  hesi- 
tating opinion  to  a  very  scientific  authority,  I  said, 
"  There  is  nothing  to  prove  that  absolute  continence 
for  a  long  time  is  a  healthful  or  possible  condition,  but 
we  often  have  instances  where  protracted  continence 
shows  the  opposite." 

He  was  ready  with  an  answer  and  took  at  once  a 
mutual   acquaintance  as   an  example  —  a  bachelor  of 


326  FURTHER  INVESTIGATIONS 

forty,  strong,  robust,  well-balanced,  highly  cultured, 
and  efficient.  "  There,"  he  said,  "  is  a  man  whom  we 
know  to  be  absolutely  continent  and  at  the  same  time, 
in  perfect  mental  and  physical  health."  Plainly,  I  was 
well  refuted,  but  had  it  not  been  for  the  secrecy  as  to 
identity  which  has  always  gone  in  my  sex  investigations, 
I  need  not  have  been ;  for  I  already  knew  the  history  of 
the  individual  in  question.  I  knew  that  he  had  had  an 
early  love  affair,  that  he  did  not  propose  to  the  girl,  as 
he  felt  that  he  could  not  marry  for  a  long  time  for 
financial  reasons,  that  she  waited  years  for  him  to  speak, 
and  that  when  he  did  not,  she  married  another,  that  he 
learned  later  that  she  had  cared  for  him  as  he  had  for 
her,  that  he  kept  her  as  his  ideal  and  never  found  an- 
other, that  this  ideal  was  his  talisman  against  promis- 
cuity, that  when  sex  demands  were  oppressive  and  obses- 
sive, he  masturbated  as  much  as  the  conditions  seemed 
to  warrant. 

I  often  am  amused  when  people  with  insufficient  prem- 
ises and  no  knowledge  of  life,  use  as  arguments  the  celi- 
bacy of  a  priesthood,  or  the  continent  lives  of  thought- 
to-be-known  individuals.  My  critic  knew  as  much  as 
they,  and  neither  knew  much  of  the  real  conditions.  It 
is  annoying  to  see  chapters,  whole  books  even,  by  edu- 
cated men,  based  on  such  circumstantial  evidence,  or 
pure  guesswork. 

Reader,  gentle  or  indignant,  I  may  be  very  wrong, 
but  I  give  you  facts,  cold,  hard  facts,  facts  repeated 
times  without  number.  My  mental  limitations  incapac- 
itate me  for  more  logical  deductions,  or  for  more  lucid 
reasoning  than  I  have  given  already.  I  frankly  admit 
that  I  was  nurtured  in  the  hot-bed  of  idealism.  I  was 
responsive  to  such  stimuli.  I  thank  God  that  I  was  and 
,am  an  idealist,  so  far  as  maybe ;  but,  until  the  old  ideal- 


THE  OLD  IDEALISM  327 

ism  is  restated  in  terms  of  biology  and  human  limita- 
tions, pragmatism  is  for  me  the  only  possible  idealism 
consistent  with  a  well-rounded  out,  moral,  healthy,  and 
happy  human  life.  We  must  have  enough  common 
sense  to  allow  time  and  ability  for  preparation  for  the 
Heaven  which  is  to  be  the  home  of  all  idealists,  and 
maybe  of  pragmatists,  and  possibly  of  all  the  rest. 


INDEX 


Acquired  characters,  6 

Authorities  agreeing  with  au- 
thor, 257,  290 

Author  of  Onania,  Lalle- 
mand,  Tissot,  Voltaire,  con- 
cerning auto-erotism,  238 

Auto-erotism,  denied,  200 

Auto-erotism,  indications  for, 
226 

Avoidance  of  extremes,  234 

Burrow,  Dr.  Trigant,  27,  29,  30, 

36,  47 
Belief  in  future  existence,  235 
Breuer  and  Freud,  28 

Case  histories,  case  1,  144;  case 

2,   146;   case  8,   148;   case   13, 

149;  case  57,  151  case  59,  152; 

case,  309,  153;  case,  312,  155; 

case  313,  157;  case  314,  159. 
Christianity,    early     abuses    in, 

237 
Concessions  to  sex,  289 
Conclusions,  256,  257 
Conditioned    motor    reflex,    98, 

108-117,  123 
Conditioned  psychic  reflex,  117 
Continence,  32 
Continence,      observations      on, 

314-317 
Conventions,  34 
Criticism  of  Rational  Sex  Ethics 

and  discussion  of  same,  265- 

275 

Dreams  and  interpretations,  41- 
45,  77,  78,  82-97,  120,  127-137 

Enquiries,  answers  to,  with  il- 
lustrative cases,  303-313 

Erotic  feelings,  arousal  of,  123, 
124 


329 


Exhibitionist,  101 

Female  frigidity,  so-called,  267 
Foerster,      F.      W.,      Marriage 
and  the  Sex  Problem,  quota- 
tions from,  321,  322 
Freud,  33,  78,  99,  112 

Gratification,  sexual,  frequency 
of,  310 

Happiness,  legitimate  and  laud- 
able, 231 

Hall,  Dr.  G.  S.,  Adolesceiice, 
275 

Herbert,  Dr.  S.,  Psychology 
and    Physiolog-y    of   Sex,    283 

Histories  in  detail,  34,  49,  57, 
99,  219-221 

Holding  to  old  beliefs,  239 

Horton,  78 

Hysteria,  case  of,  98 

Ignorance  and  fear  of  sex  a 
menace  to  health  and  moral- 
ity, 255 

Incomplete  sex  instruction,  198 
«t  seq. 

Individual  and  society,  the,  187 

Jung,  78 
Karezza,  311 

I^amark,  6 

Letter  of  enquiry  on  sex  sub- 
jects, 302 

Letter  of  soldier's  wife,  211- 
214 

I/iterary  editor  of  American 
Hygiene  Association,  265,  266 

Luther,  210 


330 


INDEX 


Married   couples   not   adjusted, 

223,  224 
Mental  hygiene,  138,  218 
Mistaken   diagnosis,  213-218 

Newly  married,  the,  practical 
suggestions  for,  291-300 

Nietzsche,  278 

Nocturnal  emissions,  124 

Nocturnal  sleep  manifestations 
in  women,  125 

ffidipus  complex,  24 
Oneida  Community,  311 
Origination  of  instinct  to  right 
conduct,  239 

Pawlow,  98 

Point  of  view,  62,  63,  73-76 

Polymorphous     perversion     not 

ab  origine,  75 
Pragmatism,  48 
Pragmatic  criterion,  78 
Prince,  79,  98 
Problem      of     continence      and 

morality,  224,  225 
Propaedeutic,  unmethodological, 

228-231 
Psycho-analysis,  28 
Psycho-analysis      and      society, 

27-79 

Question,     the     sex,     practical 

side,  284 
Question,     the      sex,     spiritual 

side,  283 
Questionnaire,   psychology    and 

physiology  of  sex,  140 
Questionnaire,       additions       to, 

143 
Quotations   from   books   of   sex 

instruction,  240-247 

Reform  of  one  given  to  sexual 
license,  318-320 

Review  of  Rational  Sex  Ethics 
by  Journnl  of  American 
Medical  Association,  276 


Review  of  Rational  Sex  Ethics 
by  Journal  of  National  Medi- 
cal Association,  276 

Review  of  Rational  Sex  Ethics 
by  International  Journal  of 
Ethics,  '211 

Robinson,  5 

Sex  education,  suggestions  for 
repairing  defects   in,  259-262 

Sex  histories,  introduction  to, 
139,  140 

Sex  histories,  case  a,  162;  case 
b,  165;  case  c,  166;  case  d, 
168;  case  e,  170;  case  f,  173; 
case  g,  175;  case  h,  176;  case 
i,  178;  case  j,  179;  case  k, 
185;   case  1,   183 

Sex  ideals,  30 

Sex  knowledge  under  perma- 
nent ban,  258 

Sex  study  avoided  and  why,  236 

Sex  teachings,  criticisms  of  er- 
roneous, 247-254 

Sexually  adjusted,  31 

Sexual  instinct,  280,  281 

Sherrington,  99 

Source  of  material,  210 

Spencer,  Herbert,  317 

Spencerian  ethics,  30 


Talmy,  Dr.  B.  F.,  192  et  seq. 
Transference,  33 
Treatment,  113,  221 


Voluptuous  dreams,  a  substi- 
tute for  conscious  auto-ero- 
tism, 206-209 

Watson,  J.  R.,  98 

Weissman,  6 

Women,  nervous  and  hysterical, 

283 
Woodruff,  198 

Yerkes,  98 

Zugassent's  Discovery,  311 


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